MS-LS2-4 · MS-LS2-5 · How do healthy ecosystems support human communities?
Driving Question: What happens to human communities when ecosystem services decline?
1. Use sliders to simulate human impacts (deforestation, pollution, urbanization).
2. Click Run to watch ecosystem health change over 50 years.
3. Track how biodiversity, water quality, air quality, and food respond.
4. Try restoring the ecosystem — can you recover lost services?
| # | Year | Deforest | Pollut | Bio% | Water% | Air% | Food% |
|---|
| # | Deforestation percentage | Pollution level | Urbanization percentage | Restoration effort percentage | Observation |
|---|
If 50% of forest is removed, which ecosystem service will decline first and fastest? Which will be slowest to recover?
Run the simulation with high deforestation but high restoration. Does the ecosystem fully recover? How long does it take compared to the damage?
Why do ecosystem services decline faster than they recover? What does this tell us about the importance of prevention vs. restoration?