Lesson Y7-U06-L08

Y7-U06-L08 Threatened Ecosystems and Climate Change Quiz: KS3 Geography, Unit 6

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y7-U06-L08, Threatened Ecosystems and Climate Change: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 Geography (National Curriculum), Unit 6: Year 7: Ecosystems and Biomes, written with Revision Ninja.

Host it live on the board and students join with a game code on their own devices, or revise alone with Free Play. The answers are revealed in the game.

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The 20 questions

  1. What is climate change?

    • A single unusually hot summer that lasts about a week
    • A change in the number of animals in a park each year
    • A long-term shift in a place's average weather over many years
    • A map showing where storms are most common in the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans

  2. What is coral bleaching?

    • When warm seawater makes coral turn white and start to die
    • When coral grows a thick white shell to block sunlight
    • When divers cut coral from the reef each year to sell it as souvenirs to visitors
    • When coral is covered with mud washed down by rivers

  3. Which word describes an ecosystem that is easily harmed by a change?

    • Able to move quickly to find cooler water
    • Strong enough to survive any change in climate
    • Easily harmed or put at risk by a change
    • Full of minerals that help plants grow

  4. Which gases released by burning fossil fuels trap heat in the atmosphere?

    • Oxygen and nitrogen
    • Greenhouse gases
    • Salt spray from the sea
    • Dust blown from deserts

  5. Which human activities release greenhouse gases through burning fossil fuels?

    • Collecting rainwater in barrels for gardens
    • Planting trees in forests and parks, which releases large amounts of greenhouse gases
    • Driving cars, running factories and operating power stations
    • Building sand dunes along coastlines

  6. What do greenhouse gases do to the air and seas?

    • They carry ice to the poles, cooling the seas
    • They trap extra heat, so the air and seas slowly warm
    • They reflect the Sun's light and cool the air, so the climate becomes steadily colder
    • They remove all the oxygen from the atmosphere

  7. Why are polar animals such as seals threatened by climate change?

    • Warmer air makes the sea freeze faster in summer
    • Warmer air melts the sea ice that they need for resting and hunting
    • Seals move to desert areas where they cannot find water
    • The Sun gets weaker, so the seals lose heat and must move to warmer waters every winter

  8. Why can a coral reef not simply move to cooler water?

    • Corals are carried away by the wind onto the land
    • Corals only live in the deep, cold parts of the ocean
    • Corals are fixed to the seabed and cannot move quickly
    • Corals can swim quickly away from any warm water, so they never suffer from bleaching

  9. What is the main cause of coral bleaching?

    • Water that is always too deep for sunlight
    • Water that stays too cold for several weeks
    • Water that is always too shallow for fish
    • Water that stays too warm for several weeks

  10. Between 2010 and 2020, bleaching rose from about 22% to about 45% of reefs. What is the size of this rise?

    • About 23 percentage points
    • About 15 percentage points
    • About 33 percentage points
    • About 45 percentage points

  11. Which human activity is the main cause of the rising ocean temperatures that lead to coral bleaching?

    • Fishing with nets from small local boats each day
    • Building holiday resorts along sandy coastlines
    • Cutting down forests to make paper and cardboard
    • Burning fossil fuels, which releases greenhouse gases

  12. What happens to a coral reef if bleaching events happen again and again before it has recovered?

    • The corals become stronger and more resistant after each event
    • The reef recovers fully before the next bleaching event begins
    • The corals may die and the reef can lose its structure and wildlife
    • Nothing changes long term, because bleached corals always regrow

  13. Which cause and effect link is correct for coral bleaching?

    • Warmer seas make corals grow thicker, which stops bleaching
    • Cooler seas cause corals to bleach because they lose their colour
    • Fishing cools the sea, causing corals to turn white
    • Warmer seas cause corals to bleach and, in many cases, die

  14. Which example best shows a living thing being vulnerable to fast climate change?

    • A deer moves to cooler hills when the summer gets hot, and then returns to the same valley
    • A cactus stores water that lasts through a long drought
    • Coral that needs cool water is left in warming seas and bleaches
    • A weed that grows in any soil spreads quickly after a flood

  15. Polar bears hunt seals from sea ice. Which sentence correctly links a cause to an effect?

    • Melting sea ice reduces where bears can hunt, so they may struggle to find food
    • Melting sea ice makes seals fatter and easier to catch, so bears eat much more in summer
    • Melting sea ice cools the air, so bears sleep for longer
    • Melting sea ice gives bears more space to hunt seals on land

  16. A pupil writes: 'Coral bleaching is rising because warmer seas stress the coral.' What is the sentence doing?

    • Giving a personal opinion about the colour of coral
    • Describing a pattern without giving any cause, using only numbers from the graph's axes
    • Listing two separate facts that are unrelated
    • Linking a cause to its effect using the word because

  17. Which statement best describes how climate change threatens ecosystems?

    • It has no effect because living things always adapt in time
    • It only affects ecosystems that are already cold, such as the polar regions
    • It shifts the climate faster than many living things can adapt or move
    • It makes all ecosystems wetter, so species adapt to flooding

  18. The line graph shows a steady rise in reef bleaching. Which conclusion is best supported by the evidence?

    • The problem will stop by itself in the next decade, because reefs always recover quickly from heat
    • The problem is solved, because the line shows a small dip
    • The problem is unrelated to temperature, because the graph shows no temperatures
    • The trend points to a worsening problem, although one graph alone cannot prove every cause

  19. Why are ecosystems with a very narrow climate range most vulnerable to warming?

    • They cannot survive outside a narrow range of temperature, so small warming can harm them
    • They can easily move to any new climate at any speed, so they are never harmed by warming
    • They contain many species that can switch climate quickly
    • They are unaffected because they cover only small areas

  20. Which action would most directly help reduce one cause of coral bleaching?

    • Burning more forest to produce heat for nearby towns and power stations along the coast
    • Burning more fossil fuels to make cooler air over the reef
    • Building more shipping routes straight through coral reefs
    • Burning fewer fossil fuels, so less greenhouse gas traps heat in the sea

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