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A bare rock becomes a forest, a carbon atom goes round the world and comes back, and a phosphorus atom takes millions of years to do the same. You follow ecological succession stage by stage. You build box models of the carbon and phosphorus cycles in Python and count the services that ecosystems give us. Then you work out full energy budgets with the efficiencies that A-Level and IB use. It goes beyond the textbook, to the level of A-Level Biology, IB Higher Level and the Olympiad. Twelve harder problems and a full timed mock exam.

What's inside

1. Ecological succession: A bare rock does not stay bare. This lesson follows a community through its stages from the pioneers to the climax. It separates primary from secondary succession and compares succession in water with succession on rock. Then it uses a simple model to show why one is much slower than the other.
2. Nutrient cycling: the carbon and phosphorus cycles: Atoms are used again and again, but energy is not. This lesson follows the carbon and the phosphorus of an ecosystem. It separates the gaseous cycle from the sedimentary cycle and shows why the two cycles run at very different speeds. Then it builds box models that a program can run.
3. Ecosystem services and energy budgets worked fully: Ecosystems give people many useful things, and the energy budget of an ecosystem can be worked out to the last kilojoule. This lesson names the ecosystem services and a way to put a price on them. Then it works out the efficiencies of an energy budget as A-Level and IB teach it.