You have been assigned to address a problem of overpopulation of species X in a nearby county. One of the members of your team suggests introducing species Y, which is a natural predator of species X, but not normally found in the area. After some discussion, you go ahead and introduce species Y. What aspects of the hierarchical organization may be affected within a period of a several years?

Question

A. organism, population, species
B. population, species, community, biosphere
C. population, species, community
D. population, community

Clarify Question
1. What is the key concept addressed by the question?
2. What type of thinking is required?
3. What key words does the question contain and what do they mean?

Gather Content
1. What do you know about hierarchical organization?How does it relate to the question?

Consider Possibilities
1. What other information is related to the question? Which information is most useful?
2. If a predator is added which levels of structure would be affected?

Choose Answer
1. Given what you now know, what information and/or problem solving approach is most likely to produce the correct answer?

Reflect on Process
1. Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process breakdown or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
2. This question asked you to predict the impact of a predator on different levels of a hierarchical system.If you got the correct answer, great job! If you got an incorrect answer, where did you get stuck?

Answer 1

C. population, species, community

Clarify Question
1. The question is about the impact of a new species on thehierarchical organization of living systems.
2. To apply the definition of levels of organization to determine how
they are affected by addition of a new species.
3. Y is a predator of X. This means that Y eats X.
Population – members of a species in a local area
Species – all members of a species
Community – multiple species interacting with each other
Biosphere – both living and non-living components

Gather Content
1. question?Heirarchical
refers to one level building on the level below it, like a pyramid. So if one level is affected it can impact the levels above it.

Consider Possibilities
1. A predator would impact the prey species at the population level.
2. Levels above this would also be affected up to the level of community.

Choose Answer
1. The best answer that the population of X will be affected, which in turn affects the species and the community that it belongs to.

Reflect on Process
1. A decrease in the number of species X would affect the hierarchical levels above it up to the community level.
2. Increased predation will not have an impact at the level of an individual organism or the biosphere.