1b Biology: Core. Flashcards
Name four ways in which a desert animal may be adapted to its environment.
Large surface area to volume ratio
Efficient with water.
Good in hot conditions.
Camouflage.
State three ways that plants and animals might be adapted to deter predators.
1) Some animals and plants have armour – like roses have thorns, cacti have sharp spines and tortoises have shells.
2) Others produce poisons – like bees and poison Ivy.
3) And some have warning colours to scare off predators like wasps.
Name three things that plants compete for.
Light
Water
Nutrients.
Name three things animals compete for.
Food.
Mates.
Territory.
Give two examples of non-living factors that can cause environmental changes.
1) A change in the average temperature.
2) A change in the average rainfall.
Explain how Lichen can be used as an indicator for air pollution.
Particular types of lichen are very sensitive to the concentration to the level of Sulphur Dioxide in the atmosphere.
Name an organism that can be used as an indicator of water pollution.
Sludge-worms.
Give two ways that energy is lost in a food chain.
Movement.
Faeces.
Give one way that carbon dioxide from the air enters a food chain.
When organisms die, the carbon dioxide is recycled.
Name three animal characteristics that are determined by genes.
1) Eye Colour.
2) Blood Group.
3) Inherited Disorders.
Name three animal characteristics that are determined by a mixture of genes and the environment.
1) Weight.
2) Height.
3) Skin colour.
How would you make a clone using tissue culture?
This is where a few plant cells are put in a growth medium with hormones, and they grow into new plants – clones of the parent plant. These plants can be made very quickly, in very little space, and be grown all year.
State two examples of useful applications of genetic engineering.
1) Genetically modified (GM) crops have had their genes modified e.g. to make them resistant to viruses, insects and herbicides.
2) Sheep have been genetically engineered to produce substances, like drugs in their milk that can be used to treat human disease.
Explain Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
More than three billion years ago, life on earth began as simple organisms from which all the more complex organisms evolved.
Why was Darwin’s theory very controversial at the time?
1) It went against common religious beliefs about how life on Earth developed – it was the first plausible explanations for our own existence without the need for a creator (God).
2) There was not enough evidence to convince many scientists, because not many other studies had been done into how organisms changed over time.
