Indicator and Keystone Species

What is an indicator species?

• environmental indicators that offer an early signal of evironmental degradation or change.

• any animal with a backbone and large enough to see without the aid of a microscope

• plants that have adapted to living in harsh environments

• microscopic, single-celled organisms that thrive in diverse environment

Species indicators show whether there is pollution in an area?

• True

• False

• Only In cites

• Only where an indicator species is present

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS3-4

Which of these is a species indicator?

• Benthic macroinvertebrates

• Sulpher Dioxide

• earthworm

• house cat

A life form that is very sensitive to environmental changes in its ecosystem. They can give us early-warning messages that a habitat is suffering.

• Indicator Species

• Flagship Species

• Predators

• Ecosystem Engineers

Indicator species usually are large animals?

• True

• False

• Not animals only plants

What is a disadvantage of using indicator species as a method of determining levels of pollution

• Requires specialist equipment

• Time consuming

• Difficult to do

• Does not tell us how much pollution there is

Lichen is high in areas of...

• High air pollution

• Low air pollution

• Medium pollution

• No pollution

What types of lichen are there?

• Crusty, leafy, and skinny

• Crusty, leafy, and shruby

• Crusty only

• There are no types

These organisms only survive in very clean water

• red tailed maggots and sludgeworms

• Mayfly larvae and stonefly nymph

• caddis fly larva and freshwater shrimps

• water louse

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-1

NGSS.MS-LS2-4

Which of the following is a reason why freshwater macroinvertebrates are used as indicator species?

• They are found in all aquatic habitats.

• They are often diffulcult to collect.

• None are capable of tolerating pollution.

• Often live for less than one week.