HS-LS2-6 | Ecosystem Stability and Change

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Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.

Clarification statement: Examples of changes in ecosystem conditions could include ecological succession, modest biological or physical changes, such as moderate hunting or seasonal floods; and extreme changes, such as volcanic eruption or sea level rise.

Assessment

What assessment of HS-LS2-6 might look like on a NY state exam.

Exam Cluster Question
August 2026 Deep-Sea Dilemmas Question 7
Invasive Mussels Question 37
Parrots and Biodiversity Question 40
June 2026 Nitrogen: Friend or Foe? Question 8
Green and Black Frogs Question 13
The Forest Gardener Question 36
January 2026 Keystone Species Rule Question 10
August 2025 Ivory and Elephants Question 18
June 2025 Salt Marsh Shoreline Question 22
Salt Marsh Shoreline Question 24
Salt Marsh Shoreline Question 26
Keystone Species: Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs Question 39
Sample clusters (Spring 2024) Coral Reefs Question 1
Dinosaurs-Evolution Question 3

Performance Level Descriptions

PLDs communicate the knowledge and skills expected of students to demonstrate proficiency in each Learning Standard. NYS assessments classify student performance into one of five levels.

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Level 1: Identify the evidence, from those provided, that supports the claim that complex interactions in an ecosystem maintain relatively consistent numbers and/or types of organisms in stable conditions.
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Level 2: Identify an evidence-based claim that the complex interactions in an ecosystem maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions or that changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem or given evidence, from those provided, identify the claim that describes the complex interactions.
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Level 3: Evaluate a claim using evidence that the complex interactions in an ecosystem maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions or that changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
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Level 4: Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
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Level 5: Use claims, evidence, and reasoning, to argue the merits of explanations regarding complex interactions in ecosystems and their ability to maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.

Vocabulary

Terms from the Biology Glossary that come from this standard or from the released exam questions that assess it.

From this standard
  • argument
  • claim
  • complex interactions
  • disturbance
  • ecological change
  • ecological succession
  • ecosystem
  • ecosystem resilience
  • flood
  • fluctuation
  • habitat
  • hunting
  • population
  • resources
  • sea level rise
  • species abundance
  • stability and change
  • volcanic eruption
From released exam questions

Resources

Examples and discussion of resources for the learning, teaching, and assessment of HS-LS2-6.

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NGSS Dimensions

Performance expectation HS-LS2-6 was developed using the following elements from the NRC document A Framework for K-12 Science Education:

Science and Engineering Practices
  • Engaging in Argument from Evidence: Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning behind currently accepted explanations or solutions to determine the merits of arguments.
  • Scientific Knowledge is Open to Revision in Light of New Evidence
    • Scientific argumentation is a mode of logical discourse used to clarify the strength of relationships between ideas and evidence that may result in revision of an explanation.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
  • LS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience
    • A complex set of interactions within an ecosystem can keep its numbers and types of organisms relatively constant over long periods of time under stable conditions. If a modest biological or physical disturbance to an ecosystem occurs, it may return to its more or less original status (i.e., the ecosystem is resilient), as opposed to becoming a very different ecosystem. Extreme fluctuations in conditions or the size of any population, however, can challenge the functioning of ecosystems in terms of resources and habitat availability.
Crosscutting Concepts
  • Stability and Change
    • Much of science deals with constructing explanations of how things change and how they remain stable.
Page contributors: Conrad Richman, Caroline Leonard
Biology | HS. Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
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