B1.4 Adaptation For Survival

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B1 4.1 Adapt and survive

  • Organisms need a supply of materials from their surroundings and from other living organisms to survive and reproduce.
  • Organisms have features (adaptations) that enable them to survive in the conditions in which they normally live.
  • Extremophiles have adaptations enabling them to live in extreme conditions of salt, temperature or pressure.
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B1 4.2 Adaptation in animals

  • All living things have adaptations that help them to survive in the conditions where they live.
  • Animals that are adapted for cold environments are often large, with a small surface area:volume ratio (SA:V). They have thick, insulating layers of fat and fur.
  • Changing coat colour in the different seasons gives animals year-round camouflage.
  • Adaptations for hot, dry environments include a large SA:V ratio, thin fur, little body fat and behaviour patterns that avoid the heat of the day.
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B1 4.3 Adaptation in plants

  • Plants lose water vapour from the surface of their leaves.
  • Plant adaptations for surviving in dry conditions include reducing the surface area of the leaves, having water-storage tissues and having extensive root systems.
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B1 4.4 Competition in animals

  • Animals often compete with each other for food, territories and mates.
  • Animals have adaptations that make them good competitors.
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B1 4.5 Competition in plants

  • Plants often compete with each other for light, for water and for neutrients (minerals) from the soil.
  • Plants have many adaptations that make them good competitors.
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B1 4.6 How do you survive?

  • Organisms have adaptations which enables them to survive in the conditions in which they normally live.
  • Plants often compete with each other for light, water and nutrients from the soil.
  • Animals often compete with each other for food, mates and territory.
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B1 4.7 Measuring environmental change

  • Animals and plants may be adapted to cope with specific features of their environment, e.g. thorns, poisons and warning colours.
  • Environmental changes may be caused by living or non-living factors.
  • Environmental changes can be measured using non-living indicators.
  • Living organisms can be used as indicators of pollution.
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B1 4.8 The impact of change

  • Both living and non-living factors can cause changes in the environment that affect the distribution of living organisms.
  • Reproducible data on the effect of environmental change are not always easy to collect or interpret.
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