Environmental Change
Environmental Change - Related Videos
04:34
Climate Change - Concepts
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2019
The certainty of climate change remains a public controversy despite the consensus among approximately 97% of active climate researchers, who not only agree that the Earth’s climate is changing but also state that this change is intensified by human activity, predominantly carbon emissions 1. The disconnect between the public and the experts is partly due to poor understanding of the mechanisms involved in climate change as well as the differences among essential concepts such as weather and...
08:14
Climate Change - Student Protocol
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2019
Melting Land and Sea Ice ExpandNOTE: This activity is a simulation of land- and sea-ice melting and their effects on water levels. First, label one graduated cylinder as 'Sea Ice' and the other graduated cylinder as 'Land Ice.' Hypotheses: the experimental hypothesis might be that the land ice melting will cause the water level to rise more than the melting sea ice. The null hypothesis would be that there will be no difference in the change in water level between the two containers. Add 10 ice...
01:50
Global Climate Change
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2019
Throughout its ~4.5 billion year history, the Earth has experienced periods of warming and cooling. However, the current drastic increase in global temperatures is well outside of the Earth’s cyclic norms, and evidence for human-caused global climate change is compelling. Paleoclimatology, the study of ancient climate conditions, provides ample evidence for human-caused global climate change by comparing recent conditions with those in the past. Past Periods of Warming and Cooling In the last...
01:34
Environmental Enrichment for Rodents
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2026
All animal procedures described here must be conducted in accordance with institutional animal ethics guidelines and approved by IACUC. All procedures must follow the principles of the 3Rs—Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement—and must be performed by trained personnel. Environmental enrichment involves objects and practices that encourage natural behaviors, improve psychological well-being, and promote better welfare in laboratory rodents. Environmental enrichment should be tailored to the...
01:26
Technological Change
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2024
Total Factor Productivity (TFP) measures the efficiency with which inputs are transformed into outputs in production. It is the essence of economic growth, driven by technological advancement. Consider the agricultural sector, where production requires vast amounts of human labor and work animals. Today, modern farm machinery and agriculture technologies have revolutionized how we cultivate crops and produce food much more efficiently. TP = A*f(K, L) TFP is represented as a multiplier 'A' in...
FAQs
Altered temperature, water availability, nutrient cycles, or habitat structure can change how easily organisms obtain essential resources. Greater access may support survival and reproduction, whereas reduced access or increased physiological stress can limit population growth. These effects may also modify interactions among organisms, producing wider changes in species composition and community structure.
Physiological stress indicates that changing conditions are affecting an organism’s ability to function effectively. Changes in temperature, water availability, or other environmental factors can influence survival and resource access, which then affect population performance. Studying stress helps biologists connect physical or chemical changes in an ecosystem with biological responses and longer-term shifts in species distributions.
When conditions alter survival or access to resources, individuals may experience different effects depending on their characteristics. Those differences can influence which organisms survive and reproduce, creating conditions in which natural selection changes population traits over time. This mechanism helps explain why biological populations may respond differently to the same environmental shift.
A change in habitat structure can modify where organisms live and how they reach resources, while a change in species composition alters which organisms interact within the community. Together, these shifts can reorganize relationships among species and influence community structure. The resulting changes may extend beyond individual populations to affect broader ecosystem function.
Biologists examine changes in environmental conditions alongside responses such as resource access, physiological stress, population growth, species distributions, biodiversity, and community structure. They also consider biological changes in ecosystem function and species composition. Linking these observations helps researchers determine how altered conditions influence organisms and ecosystems rather than treating each response as an isolated pattern.
This research is useful when conservation decisions require an understanding of how species and ecosystems may respond to changing conditions or disturbances. Information about distributions, biodiversity, population growth, and ecosystem function can support assessments of likely biological responses. These assessments contribute to conservation planning and ecological forecasting without focusing only on present-day conditions.