Adaptation & Climate Change

1. Adaptation & Climate Change Presented By: Jessica Heinz

2. Presentation Overview • Why do animals need to adapt? • How do they adapt? • What are the consequences of not adapting to climate change?

3. What is Climate Change? • The term climate change is technically defined as “a long-term change in the earth’s climate, especially a change due to an increase in the average atmospheric temperature”.

4. Effects on Animals Examples: • Birds lay eggs earlier in the year than usual • Hibernating mammals come out sooner • Sea level rises of only 50cm could cause sea turtles to lose their nesting beaches • Polar bears are affected both by the reduction in sea ice and by reduced stocks of its primary food, the ringed seal.

5. What is Adaptation? • The ability of a species to survive in a particular ecological niche, especially because of alterations of form or behavior brought about through natural selection.

6. Why Do Animals Need to Adapt? • To SURVIVE • If they do not adapt, they will not have the necessary traits to survive in a changing environment. • They may have to find new food sources. • They may have to migrate with the seasons to find food and/or shelter. • They may have to physically adapt through the generations to become a better predator and/or hide from predators: • Become leaner, fatter, smaller, larger, more agile, better climber, better digging skills, better hunter, better scavenger, etc.

7. How Do Animals Adapt? • INSTINCT • Animals instinctually know where to find food and water. Through trial-and-error they learn how to obtain it. • GENERATION TO GENERATION • Although in most cases is takes several generations for an adaptation to make its way through a large part of a population, Minor changes can be passed from parents to children and a series of small changes can build up into adaptation. • Something as simple as a better hunting technique can be passed from mother to baby and then from that baby to its future offspring, and so on until the entire population knows it. It therefore becomes an adaptation.

8. Consequences of Not Adapting • If species do not adapt to the changing climate, they are at a very high risk of extinction. • The extinction process may be slow, but eventually all individuals will die because they will not have the necessary skills or traits to survive in the habitat around them. • Some animals may not adapt but simply move to a new habitat and learn to make their way there.

9. Air Pollution & Animals • Air pollution is particularly dangerous to animals when it is in the form of acid rain. • Acid rain kills aquatic life in lakes and streams when the acidity of the water is altered. • The acid can not only kill plants, but contaminate them, and in turn be ingested by wildlife. • Extreme ultraviolet radiation caused by a thinning ozone layer damages plants and wildlife. • Troposheric ozone molecules near the ground damage lung tissues of animals and prevent plant respiration by blocking the openings in leaves where respiration occurs. • Without respiration, a plant is not able to photosynthesize at a high rate and so it will not be able to grow. • Without adequate plant life, animals may be forced to move to an alternate location or may starve if they cannot adapt to finding other food sources.

10. Air Pollution & Adaptation • If it were not for negligent human actions that cause so much air pollution, which further contributes to climate change, animals would not have adapt. • There would not be a threat to species that are not adapting as rapidly as the climate is warming. • Pollution is KILLING species, and it is OUR fault they are dying.

11. Animals That Have Already Begun to Adapt • Polar bears today are thinner and less healthy than those of 20 years ago. • Many fish species are moving northward in search of cooler waters. • Coral reefs around the world are predicted to increase by up to a third in size. • Elephant seal pups are leaner because their prey is migrating to cooler waters. • Canadian red squirrels are breeding about 18 days earlier.

12. How To Prevent Climate Change so that Animals Do Not Need to Adapt • Combat deforestation • Forests help protect the planet by absorbing massive amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most abundant type of pollution that causes climate change. • Engage with businesses to reduce carbon emissions • Burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas, to generate energy has the greatest impact on the atmosphere than any other single human activity. • Coal is especially damaging to our atmosphere, releasing 70% more carbon dioxide than natural gas for every unit of energy produced.

13. Homework Questions • What are the main causes of air pollution? What can you do to lower it? Why is reducing air pollution important? • What are the possible risks to animals if air pollution is not reduced? How can harming animals affect us? • Name and describe 2 ways that animals can adapt to climate change. What may happen if they do not adapt? Topic 13 Summary due: Friday, November 30

14. Video Time!!! This video discusses climate change, 5 scary effects of climate change, air pollution, and extinction. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Jxs7lR8ZI&feature=relmfu