How living things depend on each other

This lesson asks you to describe how variety within and among communities of living things keeps those communities resilient. It also asks you to describe how living things relate to one another and to their natural environment, within a species, between species, and between species and their surroundings, and to explain how these relationships sustain biodiversity. The museum holds no record that serves these expectations yet, so this lesson offers none; your class brings its own examples and sources. ¹

Choose a habitat near you, such as a pond, a hedge or the grass of the schoolyard. Draw arrows from each living thing to what it needs from another living thing or from its surroundings. What happens to your drawing if one kind of living thing is removed?