Currently, scientists are worried about water pollution and the health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. This is the threat that the Chesapeake Bay, as well as the plants and animals that live in its waters and on its shores, now faces. An animal's habitat is the place where it lives, finds food, defends itself from predators, finds a mate and reproduces. Most animals confine their activities to a particular kind of habitat where they are most successful at fulfilling their needs. Likewise, oysters populate areas where there is a suitable flow of oxygen-filled water, an abundant supply of plankton to serve as a food source, and a hard surface to settle on.
Animals differ in their ability to adapt with change.
Some species of animals are able to adapt to changes by their habitats or food sources easily. Raccoons, for example, survive equally well eating fish from a river or table scraps from garbage cans. Many animals, however, do not adapt well to change. Degradation of a species' habitat can result in a decrease in the animal's population or extinction of that species in the area. Many plant and animal species have suffered from habitat destruction in the Chesapeake Bay.