Transcript Population and Ecosystems 8 Adaptations 1

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 simultaneously 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 relationship 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 butterflies 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?