Environmental Change

Cards (8)

  • Environmental changes
    Changes that can cause the distribution of organisms to change
  • A change in distribution means a change in where an organism lives
  • Environmental changes that can affect organisms
    • Temperature
    • Availability of Water
    • Composition of Atmospheric Gases
  • Temperature
    • The distribution of bird species in Germany is changing because of a rise in average temperature. E.g. the European bee-eater bird is a Mediterranean species but it's now present in parts of Germany.
  • Availability of Water
    • The distribution of some animal and plant species in the tropics changes between the wet and the dry seasons-i.e. the times of year where there is more or less rainfall, and so more or less water available. Each year in Africa, large numbers of giant wildebeest migrate, moving north and then back south as the rainfall patterns change.
  • Composition of Atmospheric Gases
    • The distribution of some species changes in areas where there is more air pollution. Some species of lichen can't grow in areas where sulfur dioxide is given out by certain industrial processes.
  • These environmental changes can be caused by seasonal factors, geographic factors or human interaction
  • The rise in average temperature
    Is due to global warming, which has been caused by human activity