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How Do Organisms Change Their Environment?. Changes over time. All environments change over time. (Sometimes quickly and other times over many years). These changes can be caused by plants, animals, and people. Ironwood Trees.
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Changes over time • All environments change over time. (Sometimes quickly and other times over many years). • These changes can be caused by plants, animals, and people.
Ironwood Trees • Are evergreen tress that grow about 15 meters high and can live for up to 1,000 years. • Found on in the Sonoran Desert • The shade from their leaves can be up to 10*C underneath the tree. • This cooler temperature and protection from direct sunlight allows other plants to live near the base of the tree. • When leaves fall, nutrients are released back into the soil. • Provides a habitat for other plants, birds, and insects.
Turning Rock into Soil • Lichens- combinations of fungi and algae that live together. • Can live just about anywhere including on rocks. • As lichens grow, they break down rock. • When they die, their decayed bodies and pieces of the broken rock form soil. • This process allows small plants such as mosses and grasses to begin growing in the rock. • The mosses and grasses trap sediments around them, and more soil builds up. • Eventually, the area may become home to many plants.
Introduced plants • Some plants can harm the environment when they begin to grow in an area where they do not grow naturally. • Ex: Beach Vitex on the coast of SC has crowded out other important plants.
Building Dams • Beavers make a dam across a stream or river to form a pond behind it. • Within the pond, they build their lodge, a protected area in which they live. • When the beaver dam stops the fast moving water of the stream or river, the water behind the dam becomes a quiet pond. • Organisms that need fast moving water cannot survive there. • The pond formed by the beaver dam is a good environment for fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. • Wood ducks often nest near ponds formed by beaver dams.
Global Warming • People can change the environment. • Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide in to the air. Carbone dioxide is a gas that helps trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere. • Trapped heat helps to keep comfortable temperatures on Earth. However, as the levels of carbon dioxide increases, some scientists think this is causing an increase in temperature near Earth’s surface called global warming. • Coral in the ocean is very sensitive to temperature changes. • The water temperature of the surface is also getting warmer causing coral to die. • It may also cause diseases that affect organisms in the ocean to increase.
Acid in Rain and Snow • When fossil fuels are burned, the gases are released into the atmosphere. • These gases mix with the water in the atmosphere. • When this water falls to Earth’s surface as rain or snow, it has high levels of acid. • Water in rain and snow makes the water in lakes and oceans more acidic too. • Fish, frogs, clams, and snails cannot survive if the water has too much acid.
Air Pollution • Air quality- is related to the amount of pollution in the air. • Is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. • Gases, smoke, and particles of ash are released into the air when coal, oil, and natural gas are burned. • Some of these gases combine with other gases to form a gas called ozone. • Ozone can be harmful when breathed. It can irritate throats, make breathing difficult, can cause people to cough, and fell pain in the chest.
Air Pollution continued… • Increased amount of ozone can make asthma attacks worse for people who have asthma. • Asthma- a disease that causes air passages in the body to narrow during an attack, making breathing difficult. • The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rates air quality based on the amount of ozone and other pollution in the air on a given day.
Removal Of Trees • Burning or cutting down tress causes changes in the environment. • These areas are cleared for farming or building homes or buildings. • Habitats are destroyed when trees are cut down. • Habitat destruction is one of the main reasons that species become extinct. • The roots of trees and plants help to prevent soil from washing away during storms. • When trees are cut down, soil washes into rivers and these rivers carry the soil to oceans. • When soil enters the ocean, it may settle on top of coral reefs. Corals cannot survive. • Also, when trees are cut down, there are fewer amounts of carbon dioxide that plants breathe in order to survive.
