Short Term Changes

Short term changes to the ecosystem

​Do All Short Term Changes Cause Problems?   Wildfires and flooding can bring rapid changes to an area. Humans also can cause problems by cutting down trees and polluting the area.

Plants and animals that live in changing areas may not have time to adapt to the new conditions. Those that cannot move to another area may not survive.

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 Wildfires are fires that rage out of control through an area. They burn trees and plants, destroying the habitats and food sources of the animals that live ​there. Humans cause 90 percent of wildfires.

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Are wildfires a short term change?

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Multiple Choice

Wildfires are an example of a short term change?

• False

• True

Multiple Choice

What can start a wildfire?

• a campfire
• lightning 
• heat
• all of the above

Short Term Environmental Changes

• Occurs quickly

• Affects organisms immediately

• Organisms move away or die

​​Hurricanes

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Tornados

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Wildfires

Multiple Choice

Choose an example of a short term change.

• hurricanes

• ice age

Multiple Choice

Bank swallows are birds that make their nests on the edges of rivers. In the spring they lay four or five eggs. Bank swallows can’t swim or breathe underwater. What change in these birds will likely be brought about by flooding in their freshwater habitat?

• Laying more eggs in the spring.

• eating different types of insects

• Building nests higher up on the banks

• Learning to breathe underwater.

Multiple Choice

Each year, an area of the Gulf of Mexico becomes very low in oxygen due to excessive runoff or mud from the Mississippi River. How might ocean organisms respond to this decrease in oxygen?

• Acquire the ability to breathe carbon dioxide.

• learn to breathe less oxygen

• learn to walk on land

• migrate or move to another area with more oxygen

Multiple Select

Environmental change: a change or disturbance of the environment most often caused by human influences and natural processes?

Which do you think are examples of environmental changes?

(Read it carefully. Click all that apply)

• Floods

• Droughts

• Fires

• Deforestation (trees are removed to build houses)

• Overpopulation (more people move into an area)

Short Term Environmental Changes

• Occurs quickly

• Affects organisms immediately

• Organisms move away or die

Effects of short term changes

Short term changes can destroy the environment. Here are three effects of short term changes.

First effect ----cause the organism to have to adpat to the new environment

Second effect------ cause the organisms to have to relocate

Third effect ----- cause the organisms to go extinct.

Short-term environmental change examples are: drought, smog, flooding, volcanic eruption, blizzards, and pollution. This could happen in any of the food webs.

This can effect how species will have to have to adapt to their environment so that they can continue to live there and not die off.​

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Multiple Choice

The Dead Sea has a 33% salinity, which makes it inhospitable for many aquatic organisms. During periods of abundant rain, the concentration of salt decreases to a level that certain species of algae can tolerate and they begin to grow. What can be expected when the salinity returns to normal levels?

• Increased algae growth

• Plant life flourishes

• Algae dies off

• Animals return to the area

Multiple Choice

Three-toed tree sloths are mammals which thrive in the jungles of Central and South America. A sloth’s diet is consists entirely of leaves and buds from trees. How will these organisms be affected as rain forests are destroyed by deforestation, deforestation means that trees are removed?

• Most sloths will become carnivores.

• The sloth population will likely decrease.

• Some sloths will start to hibernate.

• A cave-dwelling population will appear.

Multiple Choice

Why are short term changes to the ecosytem called "short term"

• the change is permanent and the environment will never be the same.

• the change is temporary and the environment will go back to normal after a few days, months, years

• the change does not effect the ecosystem at all

• the change is caused by humans