Students know that in any particular environment, some kinds of plants and animals survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

On the simplest level, this standard is almost too easy to teach. Can a whale survive in a desert? What would happen if you tried to plant a rose bush in the ocean? Each species has adaptations that enable it to successfully live and reproduce in the environments it normally inhabits. Any given environment can support only a small range of organisms compared with the millions of different species that exist.

On a deeper level, this standard can guide us as we analyze the results of changes in an environment. Examples include a major oil spill, a forest fire, a volcano, or the introduction of an invasive species. After each of these events, plants and animals that used to survive quite well in a particular environment may not survive at all or may have greatly reduced numbers. Other organisms that previously could not survive in the environment can now flourish there. Teachers and students can use the web and local agencies to investigate distant and local ecosystems that have been perturbed, and how these changes affect who can live well in the ecosystem.