1. Case Studies: How species cope with environmental change

2. Goal
Through research, you will become an expert on how one environmental change affects one species and report your analysis to the class. Together we will use these case studies to understand more broadly how environmental changes affect the species in ecosystems.

3. Case Studies Environmental Change Species1
Global warming in tropical waters
Corals 2
Chemical pollution of insecticides
Bees 3
Chemical pollution of herbicides
Butterflies 4
Overfishing
Sharks 5
Commercial fishing and development of beaches
Sea Turtles 6
Global warming in arctic waters
Pink Salmon 7
Global warming
Tawny Owls

4. Your presentation
Slide 1 - Briefly describe the change in the ecosystem (1 sentence); Are human actions causing/contributing to this change?
Slide 2 - Show a picture of your assigned species and briefly describe its role in the ecosystem (1-2 sentences)
Slide 3 - How is the species responding? Is it adapting, moving, decreasing in population?
If it’s adapting, what is the change in traits/behaviors of the population that helps it cope with change? How does the changing trait/behavior help the species survive?
If it’s moving, where is it moving to? How is the new environment better suited to the survival of the species?
If it’s dying/decreasing, why (loss of habitat, reproduction can’t happen, loss of food, etc.)? What other organisms in the ecosystem will be affected and how? Will humans be affected?
Slide 4 - Are humans doing anything to try to help this species survive? If not, what could humans do to help this species? (1-2 sentences)
Slide 5 - Sources cited using MLA format

5. Exemplar - Carbon Pollution in England and The Peppered Moth
In the 1800s, pollution from coal burning caused the white tree bark where peppered moths live in England to become black with soot. Humans caused this change.

6. Peppered Moths
Peppered moth larvae eat the leaves of birch and willow trees. They provide food for birds.

7. Adaptation of Peppered Moths
Peppered moths adapted to the change by changing color from mostly white to mostly black. When the tree bark changed color from white to black, it was easier for birds to spot white moths against the black bark, so white moths got eaten and black moths survived to reproduce.

8. Human Actions
Humans did not need to help peppered moths adapt to survive because they already had the genetic diversity to adapt on their own. However, humans have reduced pollution from burning coal and the trees have gone back to their natural bark color (peppered moths are now mostly white).

9. Sources
Rutowski, Ronald, and Sean Hamman. “The Peppered Moth: A Seasoned Survivor.” Ask a Biologist, Arizona State University, 4 Aug. 2015, askabiologist.asu.edu/peppered-moth.