Teaching Process

Hook:

This hook will introduce students to the differences between structural, behavioural and physiological adaptations to various environments, so that they will be prepared to do a thorough job when presented with the main activity, which focuses on various species in the North American boreal forest.

Divide students into small groups, and have each group describe on paper as many adaptations (structural, behavioural, physiological) as possible for some or all of the following organisms (possible answers provided below). Share results. Go over the difference between the types of adaptations.

Procedure:

1)Go over Handout New Changes in a New Climate and assign (or have students choose) boreal species to research (in pairs or individually).

2)Discuss with students that because natural selection is a very slow process, the
climate in Canada’s boreal forest may change too fast to allow any large organisms to evolve structural or physiological adaptations that will help them to survive. This means that some of the species that make up the present day boreal forest (animals, trees, other plants) may have difficulty surviving if the climate changes too dramatically, and too quickly, in an evolutionary sense. However, others will survive and even thrive. These changes in the composition of all species and in the abundance of specific species are known as ecosystem level adaptation.

Large mammals and birds would likely show mainly behavioural adaptations (not
adaptations in the evolutionary sense) to the conditions caused by climate change that
are anticipated in the next century or so. The vast majority of organisms that we might
expect to truly evolve adaptations in this timeframe are those with short lifecycles and
high intrinsic variability, such as insects, bacteria and viruses. (Intrinsic variability
means that there is considerable variability in traits between members of the same
species.) However, for the sake of this exercise, we will pretend that boreal animals
and birds are able to quickly evolve adaptations (over many hundreds of imaginary
generations) to new conditions being brought on by global warming.


3)As outlined on the handout, students will research their species, read the
description of how conditions could change in Canada’s boreal forest due to global
climate change, and hypothesize on how their species could adapt behaviourally, and which
physiological and structural adaptations they might evolve. (That is, which changes in
physiological processes or in body structure would give members of the species possessing
these differences an ‘edge’ over others, making them more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on genes relating to favourable traits.) Students may present their work to the class.

Teachers Notes

*Complete lesson plan and student handout can be found in the attached web link

Instructions for Students

1. Choose a boreal species to research: woodland caribou, snowshoe hare, dragonfly, beaver, river otter, lynx, gray wolf, black bear, Sharp-shinned Hawk, spruce budworm, Bufflehead duck, lemming, eastern garter snake, tamarack, snapping turtle, wood bison,
moose, black spruce, white admiral butterfly, little brown bat, blue spotted salamander, wood frog, mosquito, blackfly, mountain pine beetle, carpenter ant, Pileated woodpecker, Ruffed grouse, Osprey, Northern hawk owl, cricket, hornet etc.
Use website searches to sites like www.hww.ca, and encyclopedias for your research.

2. Describe the habitat(s) and climate to which this species is adapted (in all seasons):

Winter:


Spring:


Summer:


Fall:


3. Present day adaptations to the habitat and climate (consider how the animal is adapted to travel, find food, store food, eat, grasp things, find a mate, reproduce, handle temperature extremes and other seasonal factors, sense its environment and avoid being eaten or attacked, etc.)

Physiological adaptations (four or more):



Behavioural adaptations (four or more):



Structural adaptations (four or more):



4. Read the following description of how scientists believe climate change will affect Canada’s boreal forest:
With increased carbon dioxide and warmer, wetter weather, the boreal forest will most likely become more productive.
Diseases such as West Nile Virus and Lyme disease will become much more common.
At the same time, there could be more drought in drier regions due to the warmer temperatures that drive evaporation from lakes, soils and vegetation. Forest fires will most likely increase in frequency, intensity and severity. The mountain pine beetle, which has decimated the lodgepole pine species in British Columbia and in some areas of Alberta, could continue its spread eastward. Because of this, other tree species, such as aspen or white spruce, could become more common. The forest will slowly shift northward into areas that are presently tundra. At the southern edge, hardwood forests will likely expand, bringing species such as oak, maple and beech into areas once occupied by the boreal forest. In drier regions, the forest may give way to grasslands (similar to those that once covered the southern portions of the Prairie Provinces).

5. From the description above, what conditions will affect your species?


6. Hypothesize how your chosen species could evolve and adapt to these conditions:

Four behavioural adaptations: (Reminder: These are the most likely adaptations you would expect to see in birds and animals in
the next century or so, as global warming continues to affect Canada’s boreal forest):




Four eventual possible physiological adaptations:




Four eventual possible structural adaptations: