B1.4.2 - Environmental Change Flashcards
What affects the distribution of living organisms?
Changes in the environment
What can environmental changes be caused by?
Living or non - living factors
Who do environmental changes affect?
Animals and plants
What are the living factors?
- food source
- predators
- nesting sites
What are the non living factors?
- amount of rainfall
- amount of sunlight
- temperature
- pH of water/soil
- oxygen concentration
- water salinity
What can distribution changes be measured by?
- non living indicators such as oxygen levels, temp + rainfall
- indicator species!
How do indicator species help?
They’re organisms that only live in certain conditions so their presence or absence show how the environment has altered
What do lichens indicate?
air pollution (because they grow in clean air, so a reduction indicates a rise in pollution)
What can invertebrate animals be used as indicators for and why?
water pollution indicators and indicators of the concentration of oxygen dissolved in water as they live in water so a decrease indicates a rise in pollution
What equipment can be used to measure oxygen levels, temp and rainfall?
Devices such as humidity sensors, pH meters, light meters, oxygen sensors