Environmental Science 15th Edition by Scott Spoolman,Tyler Miller

Exercise 11

Study an ecosystem of your choice, such as a meadow, a patch of forest, a garden, or an area of wetland. (If you cannot do this physically, do so virtually by reading about an ecosystem online or in a library.) Determine and list five major plant species and five major animal species in your ecosystem. Write hypotheses about (a) which of these species, if any, are indicator species and (b) which of them, if any, are keystone species. Explain how you arrived at your hypotheses. Then design an experiment to test each of your hypotheses, assuming you would have unlimited means to carry them out.