Adaptation for Survival

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  • Adaptation for survival
    • What do organisms need to survive?
      • Plants:
        • Light, carbon dioxide, water oxygen and nutrients
      • Animals:
        • Food, water and oxygen
      • Micro-organisms:
        • A range of things: Some are like plants, others like animals, some don't need oxygen or light etc.
    • Define 'Adaptations'
      • Features that allow an organism to survive in a particular environment.
    • How are plants adapted to live in the rainforest?
      • Attach to other plants high up, to get light, as there is nearly none on the floor.
      • Can cope with high rainfall and temperatures.
    • What is the main way that animals adapt?
      • Animals often adapt to help them get food.
    • How are herbivores and carnivores adapted?
      • Herbivores have teeth for grinding up plant cells
      • Carnivores have teeth for tearing flesh and crushing bones.
    • Give an example of how organisms have adapted to the environment:
      • Camouflage.
    • What is an Extremophile?
      • An organism that can survive in extreme environments.
    • What is a thermophile?
      • An organism that survives best at very high temperatures.
    • Why is Surface area to volume ratio important in different climates?
      • Small SA:V is important in the cold as the animal will lose less heat, and vice versa in hot environments.
    • Give 3 adaptations that animals in cold environments may have:
      • Small ears, layers of fur and fat for insulation, fat layer for food supply, built up in the summer for winter.
    • Give 3 adaptations that an animal in a hot/dry environment may have:
      • Large ears to increase surface area.
      • Thin fur and little body fat, to allow heat loss.
      • Often quite small, large surface area to volume ratio, so they can loose heat, so they don't have to sweat and lose water.
    • What happens to water in plants?
      • Take in water through roots, moves up plant into leaves, lost through stomata (also for photosynthesis and respiration) by evaporation.
    • What water-related adaptations do some plants have?
      • Curled leaves to funnel evaporated water back to roots, or large leaves to funnel dew to roots.
      • small surface area to cut down area for water loss. Waxy leaves also stop evaporation.
      • Very large root systems over a wide area and very deep.
      • Fleshy leaves to store water in their tissue.
    • What do animals compete for?
      • Food, water, territory and a mate.
    • What do plants and animals have that make them better competitors?
      • Adaptations to the environment.
    • What do plants compete for?
      • Light, water, nutrients and space.
    • Give 3 examples of adaptations that plants have that make them better competitors:
      • Can spread their seed a long way, thorns to not be eaten, tall to reach light over other plants.
    • What can impact on the distribution of organisms (Living/Non-Living)?
      • New disease, predator move near, oxygen concentration changes, other competing organisms.
    • What sorts of environmental changes affect where organisms live?
      • Average temperature, average rainfall, light, pH and local climate.

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