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Course: Middle school biology > Unit 9
Lesson 2: Adaptation and environmental changeAdaptation and environmental change
Google ClassroomReview your understanding of adaptation and environmental change in this free article aligned to NGSS standards.
Key points
- Populations are often affected by changes in their environment. For example, changes in climate can affect how easy it is for organisms to find food or water.
- After an environmental change, traits that help organisms survive and reproduce in the new environment become more common. Similarly, traits that make organisms less likely to survive and reproduce become less common. This process occurs over multiple generations.
- As helpful traits become more common, the population adapts, or becomes better suited, to the new environment. The increase in helpful traits in a population over generations describes adaptation by natural selection.
- If environmental changes are too extreme, populations do not have time to adapt. As a result, the populations may go extinct.
Want to join the conversation?
How long does it take for an organisms to adapt to its environment?(16 votes)
It varies with the creature and the change to the environment.(20 votes)
What happens to the Dark brown beetles after environmental changes?(7 votes)- They become less common and less likely to reproduce.(6 votes)
did my grandma have an adaptation and thats why she wrinkely? i think i missed the update...(4 votes)
No, that's not an adaptation. She didn't have wrinkles as a kid, that just happens when you get older because proteins in the skin break down.(5 votes)
- What could've happened if the light brown beetle got extinct before the temperature change? Would there be any way that people might think the medium brown beetle was the light brown beetle?(4 votes)
I think that is a possibility because there must be more light brown beetles in their environment!(5 votes)
- Is it possible for an animal not to adapt to an environment?(2 votes)
Of course it is. However, in the process of natural selection, it is likely that animals will either adapt in some way or another or go extinct trying.(8 votes)
- I assume that the color of the beetles mean something, so what do the different colors mean?(2 votes)
- The different colors are the different colors of the actual beetles. The beetles have a better or worse chance of blending in depending on their color. Before the environmental chance, the dark brown beetles blended in the easiest,therefore helping them have more offspring. But after the change,the dark brown beetles couldn't blend in, so they got eaten by predators, so their population decreased.(5 votes)
- them beetles are kinda... moving on(3 votes)
- how long does it take for more then one organism to adapt to its environment like what if on of them stay white in the spring what do you call that(3 votes)
If I were 2 move 2 someplace different after living somewhere for 12 years could that change the way I act, dress, and talk?(2 votes)
I have trouble staying focused, anyone have any tips to help?(2 votes)
Try Listening to music with or without words that helps me a lot, I also like to eat something before I do something that needs a lot of focus as it helps to(2 votes)
