Population and Ecosystems

Adaptation: How plants and animals survive in their

environments

Adaptations• In your journal, write your thoughts on:

What does the word adaptation mean to you? Give examples to support your ideas.

Adaptation

• Life is incredibly robust and indomitable. At the same time, it is sensitive and vulnerable. What makes life simulta-neously durable and fragile?

• Life continues as long as the basic needs of an organism are met. These include energy, water, gases, nutrients, space, and protection.

Adaptations

• The exact measure of each requirement and the medium is which it is provided vary from each kind of organism. If the resources needed by a given organism are plentiful, the organism will thrive. If the resources are marginal, the organism will survive. If any resources fall below the level needed by organisms, it will die.

Adaptations

• The resources for life originate in an organism’s environment. The relation-ship between an organism and its environment is critically important. A change in the environment might improve the opportunities for a given organism to survive. On the other hand, a change might decrease its survival potential.

Adaptations

• Organisms have adaptations that allow them to live in an environment.

• Adaptations are physiological attributes (structures or functions) or behaviors that enhance an organism’s opportunity to live and reproduce in its environment. – Structural: The hawk’s talons, the

shark’s broad tail, the toad’s long, sticky tongue, and the clam’s hard shell are examples.

Adaptations

• Adaptations are physiological . . . – Functional: the trout’s ability to

extract oxygen from water, the skunk’s ability to produce and spray disgusting defensive chemicals, the bee’s ability to transform nectar into honey, and the human’s ability to reason are examples.

Adaptations

• Adaptations are physiological . . . – Behavioral: The squirrel’s

propensity for storing nuts, the black bear’s long winter hibernation, the herring’s habit of schooling, the crayfish’s active territorial defense, and the arctic tern’s long annual migration are examples.

Adaptations

• Organisms of the same kind are all members of the same species. All members of a species have similar adaptations and the ability to live in the same environment. The members of a species that are living together and interacting constitute a population. Kingdom/Phylum/Class/Order/Family/ Genus/Species. [Kings Play Cards On Fuzzy Green Stools.]

Adaptations

• Variation is the amount or difference in physiological and/or behavioral attributes exhibited by the members of a population. Variation can show up in an organism’s structures. Some giraffes, for example, have longer necks than others. Some trout have larger, darker spots than others. Some sulfur butter-flies are brighter yellow than others.

Adaptations

• Often some factor in the environment is in limited supply or pushing the limits of tolerance of the organisms. This is where variation is essential to the survival of the species.

Adaptations

• Organisms have distinctive features that make them recognizable. Perch have scales, fins, eyes, and a mouth. Grasses have blade leaves, fibrous roots, tiny flowers, and lots of seeds. Snakes have scales, color patterns, eyes, and mouths. Cats have fur, eyes, teeth, color, and tails. Features are structures of an organism.

Adaptations• The appearance of a feature within a species

is called a trait. A trait is the particular manner in which an organism exhibits a feature, how it looks. Example: Black bears all have the same features: four legs, short tail, small ears, two eyes, long, coarse fur, and a brown nose, among others. The color of the fur can vary from jet black to honey yellow. In this case, fur color is the feature, and black fur is the trait of one individual.

Adaptations• The larkspur is a plant that grows in moist

meadows. The plants share common features that make them identifiable to plant fanciers: small green leaves, tall central stems, and clusters of distinctively shaped flowers. The flowers can range from pale pink to deep royal purple. Colored flowers is a feature of larkspurs; the particular color of flower is a trait displayed by an individual plant, and vary from plant to plant.

Adaptations• Peppered Moth of England: Light-colored

wings was the predominant trait before the Industrial Revolution.

Figure 1. Peppered moths resting on three different tree trunks. (top) Two moths (one typical and one melanic) resting on the dark bark of an oak tree near the industrial city of Liverpool, U.K. (middle) The same two moths on a nearby beech tree covered by a combination of green algae and lichen. (bottom) Typical and melanic moths resting on light-colored lichen on an oak tree in rural Wales. Note the striking differences in camouflage efficiency (Bishop and Cook 1975; used by permission).

Adaptations• In your journal, write your thoughts on: What

does the word adaptation mean to you? Give examples to support your ideas.

• Kelp Fish: Why is the fish hard to see in the kelp environment?

• What benefit does the fish get from the camouflage pattern?

• How do you think the fish came to be camouflaged to blend into the environment?

Adaptations• Read: Adaptations. Answer the

questions in your journal. • Read pages 42-45. Do questions 1-4 on

page 45 in your journal.

Adaptations• Video: octopus• What did you observe the octopus doing?• What benefit does the octopus get from the

ability to change color?• How are the kelp fish and the octopus the

same and how are they different?• What adaptation does the octopus have

that allows it to survive better in its environment?

Adaptations• Organisms have many other

adaptations for survival. Adaptations help organisms acquire the resources for life, like food (energy), water, gases, and space, and enhance their chances of survival and reproduction, including securing mates and producing offspring.

Adaptations• Examples: brine shrimp can live in

alkaline water. The ability to tolerate very salty, alkaline water is an adaptation that allows brine shrimp to survive in its environment.

• Black bears have powerful claws on their front legs. Powerful claws are an adaptation that lets the bear dig in the ground and in dead wood for food.

Adaptations• Examples: grama grass produces lots

of seeds. Plentiful seed is an adaptation that allows the grama grass to reproduce.

• Mosquitoes have long, sharp proboscises. The mosquito’s proboscis is an adaptation that allows it to get the blood it needs to reproduce.

Adaptations• Hawaii is a unique ecosystem because it is

an island. Over millions of years organisms came to Hawaii’s shores only infrequently. That all changed when humans arrived there. Over a short period of time humans brought many new organisms to the islands. Each new organism had to fit into the ecosystem if it was to survive. But what is the price paid by organisms already living in the ecosystem?

Adaptations• As you watch the video on Hawaii, think

about these questions.– What adaptations do each of the

organisms featured in the video have that allow them to survive and reproduce?

– How are populations of organisms affected by the introduction of new species into the ecosystem?