SimBio Ecology
Climate Change
This relevant and popular chapter, updated in 2023, builds an understanding of the abundant scientific evidence that climate is changing and that human production of greenhouse gases is the cause. Students explore the challenges to life on Earth posed by climate change via direct and indirect impacts, as well as current and future biological responses.
Life History
This chapter, revised in 2022, introduces life-history trade-offs, highlighting how and why they evolve and can be important factors in managing threatened populations. Interactive simulations let students explore demography, life tables, survivorship curves, and strategies of allocation in a wide range of organisms.
Ecosystem Ecology
In this chapter, our growing ecological footprint and reliance on ecosystem services provide context to explore and learn about the flow of energy through ecosystems, primary production and respiration, secondary production, consumer and detrital food chains, transfer efficiencies, and energy flow diagrams.
Evolution for Ecology
This popular chapter explores evolutionary mechanisms (natural selection, genetic drift, migration, and mutation) from an ecological perspective. Interactive exercises and examples include investigations of stickleback evolution and the evolution of resistance to pesticides and antibiotics.
Community Dynamics
This engaging interactive chapter focuses on stories and simulations based on systems in Yellowstone National Park to explore succession and disturbance, food chains and food webs, and related topics.