Visit our newest exhibit gallery!
Free Admission!
In our world, everything is connected. Plants, animals, people, weather, water, soil—all are part of a delicate balance. Living things can change their environments—and through a process called adaptation, environments can even change living things! With a visit to Ecosystems, discover amazing environments from the familiar to the fantastic, and find out how the physical and living worlds affect--and in some ways, define—each other. Investigate the gallery's eight Zones, each of which explores a different ecological principle:
Peer into some of the world's harshest environments—deserts, poles, the rocky shore and deep-sea vents—and see how life adapts to survive.
Explore the kelp forest to learn about the wide variety of life forms in an ecosystem, where the diversity comes from, and why it's important.
Get splashed and sandy while you investigate the ways flowing fluids carry energy and materials from place to place.
Find out how isolation reveals the processes of evolution and adaptation.
See how rotting animals and plants help make the soil ready to support new life.
Discover the ways living and physical ecosystems interact on a global scale, and find out how Earth itself is one huge ecosystem.
Learn about the challenges faced by urban ecosystems when it comes to water, waste, energy and wildlife.
Explore how our homes are habitats, providing us—as well as pets and pests—with food, water and shelter.
Learn about the Science Center's efforts to restore kelp forests off our coast.
Learn about Dr. Chuck Kopczak's collection trip to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Read about our adventures in Texas.
Check out the Seafood Watch Cafe on the first floor of Ecosystems and learn how you can make choices for healthy oceans. And for more information, please visit the Seafood Watch Website.
