Adaptations Flashcards
Animals that live in hot, dry conditions need to keep cool and use water efficiently.
Desert animals have adapted to save water and keep cool how do they do this?
1) Desert animals lose less water by producing small amounts of concentrated urine.
2) They also make very little sweat. Camels are able to do this by tolerating big changes in body temperature, while kangaroo rats live in burrows underground where it’s cool.
How have desert animals adapted physically to cope with heat?
Does the animals have very thin layers of body fat and a thin coat to help them lose body heat e.g. camels keep nearly all their fat in their humps.
They are also usually a sandy colour to which gives good camouflage, helps them to avoid predators, or sneak up on pray
Animals that live in really cold conditions need to keep warm. How have they adapted physically to do this?
They have a compact shape to keep the surface area to a minimum – this reduces heat loss.
They have a thick layer of blubber for installation, this also acts as an energy store when food is scarce.
Thick hairy coats keep body heating and greasy first sheds water. This prevents cooling due to evaporation.
Arctic animals have white fur to help them avoid predators, or sneak up on pray.
How have desert plants adapted to having little water?
1) Plants lose water vapour from the surface of the leaves. Cacti have spines instead of leaves – to reduce water loss.
2) They also have a small surface area compare to their size. About 1000 times smaller surface area of the normal plants, reducing water loss.
Cacti maximise water absorption. Some have shallow but extensive roots to absorb water quickly over a large area. Others have deep roots to access underground water.
How have some plants and animals adapted to Deter Predators?
1) Some plants and animals have armour - like roses (thorns), cacti (sharp spines) and tortoises (shells).
2) Others produce poisons – like a bees sting and poison ivy.
3) Some have amazing warning colours to scare off predators – like wasps.
Microorganisms have adapted in a variety of different ways so that they can live in a wide range of environments. For example:
Some microorganisms like bacteria en known as extremophiles - they’re adapted to live in seriously extreme conditions like super hot volcanic vents, in very salty lakes or at high pressure on the sea bed
What do plants and animals need from their environment and from other organisms to survive and reproduce?
Plants need light, space, water and minerals (nutrients) from the soil.
Animals need space (territory) , Food, water and mates.
What living factors cause environmental changes when they increase/decrease?
1) A change in the occurrence of infectious diseases.
2) A change in the number of predators
3) A change in the number of prey or the availability of food sources.
4) A change in the number or types of competitors
What nonliving factors cause environmental changes when they increase/decrease?
1) A change in average temp
2) A change in average rainfall
3) A change in the level of air or water pollution
In what 3 ways can environmental changes affect animals and plants?
1) Population size INCREASES. if the number of prey increases, there is more food available for predators. more predators survive & reproduce, and their numbers increase too.
2) Population size DECREASES. Pesticides, less food or more diseases could kill certain animals/plants.
3) Population DISTRIBUTION CHANGES. A change in where an organism lives. the distribution of birds species in Germany is changing because of rising temp. The European Bee Eater bird is Mediterranean - but now present in parts of Germany
Some organisms are very sensitive to changes in their environment & so can be studied to see the effect of human activities - What are these organisms known as?
Indicator species.
How can Air Pollution be monitored using an Indicator species?
By looking at particular types of lichen that are very sensitive to the concentration of sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere. They can give a good idea about the level of pollution from car exhausts and power stations.
The number and type of lichen at particular locations will indicate how clean the air is. If the air is clean there will be lots of lichen.
How can water pollution be monitored using indicator species?
Some invertebrate animals, like mayfly larvae, are good indicators for water pollution because they are very sensitive to the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the water.
If you find mayfly larvae in a river, it indicates that the water is clean.
What for living indicators are used to show environmental change?
1) They use satellites to measure the temperature of the sea surface, the amount of snow and ice cover. These are modern, accurate instruments and give us a global coverage
2) Automatic weather stations tell us the atmospheric temperature at various locations. They contain thermometers that are sensitive and accurate – they can measure to very small fractions of a degree.
3) They measure rainfall using rain gauges, to find out how much the average rainfall changes year-on-year.
4) They use dissolved oxygen meters, which measure the concentration of dissolved oxygen in water, to discover how the level of water pollution is changing.
