1. How Do Changes to Habitats Affect Living Things?
Danielle Ruff
CES
3rd Grade

2. Climate Affects Living Things
Environments have different climates.
Plants and animals have adaptations that help them survive in their environments.
What is the climate like where we live?
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3. Climate Affects Living Things
If the climate in a place changes, it affects all of the things that live there.
A drought is a long period of time with very little rain.
Plants that live in a place where it usually rains may not survive a drought.

4. A desert has a hot, dry climate.
Few kinds of plants can grow in a desert because there is very little water.
As a result, few animals live there.
Those that do live there have adaptations that help them survive.
When it does rain in the desert, many plants begin to grow.
After a rain, the desert may be covered with colorful wildflowers.
These wildflowers grow quickly to make seeds before they die in the dry climate.

5. Fire Affects Living Things
A fire can cause a lot of changes to an environment.
It can kill living things.
Sometimes a fire can help an environment.
If a tree burns, it is likely to fall.
It leaves an open space in the forest.
New plants can get more sunlight and have room to grow.

6. Fire Affects Living Things
Fires can also be harmful.
They can destroy animals’ habitats.
Those animals may not be able to survive in a new habitat.

7. Fire Affects Living Things
Some plants have adaptations that help them live in places that have fires.
There are many fires in grassland environments.
Grasses have many roots and can grow back quickly after a fire.
Other plants cannot.

8. Fire Affects Living Things
Ashes from burned plants add nutrients to the soil.
The nutrients help new plants grow.

9. Balance Between Living Things
An environment is in balance when there are not too many and not too few of any kind of living thing.
An environment needs the right amount of the right plants.
Without the plants, animals will have no food.
The animals will have to find new places to live, or they will die.
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