Describing plant and animal responses to their external environment.
It is about all the major responses of living organisms to their external environment.
You need to understand what an organisms ecological niche is (more so than other years) and recap your understanding of a habitat and what Biotic and Abiotic factors are. So make sure you have a good grasp of these basics !!
YOU will get 3 essay types questions at the end of the year directed by bullet points. Remember not to apply anthropomorphism to your answers - meaning giving living things "human like" qualities. Eg: Do not say the Plants think that......they do not think they "respond"!!
The standard from NZQA says the following:
The process(es) within each response and/or the adaptive/survival advantage (which is really about its ability to pass on its genes) provided for the organism in relation to its ecological niche.
You need to use using biological ideas to explain:
How the responses occur AND why the responses provide an adaptive advantage for the organism in relation to its ecological niche.
Responses are selected from those relating to:
· Orientation in space (tropisms, nastic responses, taxes, kineses, homing, migration)
· Orientation in time (annual, daily, lunar, tidal rhythms)
· Interspecific relationships (competition for resources, mutualism, exploitation including herbivory, predation, and parasitism)
· Intraspecific relationships (competition for resources, territoriality, hierarchical behaviour, cooperative interactions, reproductive behaviours).
REMENBER - To write comprehensively and to show indepth understanding, you need to be able to:
link biological ideas to explain why the responses provide an adaptive/survival advantage for the organism in relation to its niche. The linking of ideas may involve justifying, relating, evaluating, comparing and contrasting, and analysing AND give examples!!!!!
It is about all the major responses of living organisms to their external environment.
You need to understand what an organisms ecological niche is (more so than other years) and recap your understanding of a habitat and what Biotic and Abiotic factors are. So make sure you have a good grasp of these basics !!
YOU will get 3 essay types questions at the end of the year directed by bullet points. Remember not to apply anthropomorphism to your answers - meaning giving living things "human like" qualities. Eg: Do not say the Plants think that......they do not think they "respond"!!
The standard from NZQA says the following:
The process(es) within each response and/or the adaptive/survival advantage (which is really about its ability to pass on its genes) provided for the organism in relation to its ecological niche.
You need to use using biological ideas to explain:
How the responses occur AND why the responses provide an adaptive advantage for the organism in relation to its ecological niche.
Responses are selected from those relating to:
· Orientation in space (tropisms, nastic responses, taxes, kineses, homing, migration)
· Orientation in time (annual, daily, lunar, tidal rhythms)
· Interspecific relationships (competition for resources, mutualism, exploitation including herbivory, predation, and parasitism)
· Intraspecific relationships (competition for resources, territoriality, hierarchical behaviour, cooperative interactions, reproductive behaviours).
REMENBER - To write comprehensively and to show indepth understanding, you need to be able to:
link biological ideas to explain why the responses provide an adaptive/survival advantage for the organism in relation to its niche. The linking of ideas may involve justifying, relating, evaluating, comparing and contrasting, and analysing AND give examples!!!!!
INTRODUCING BEHAVIOR IN NATURETo be a successful, organisms (plant, animal, bacteria, fungi) must be able to survive AND reproduce. To sense the surrounding environment (abiotic and biotic) and respond to it is critical.....otherwise your reproductive success will be limited. An organism must be able to:
- find favourable conditions OR avoid unfavourable conditions
- ensure they have all their neccessary raw materials for survival
- reduce competition (interspecific and intraspecific)
- avoid being eaten
- find a suitable mate
Below is a little recap:
The Niche
The ecological niche describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (for example, by growing when resources are abundant, and when predators, parasites and pathogens are scarce) and how it in turn alters those same factors (for example, limiting access to resources by other organisms, acting as a food source for predators and a consumer of prey). "The type and number of variables comprising the dimensions of an environmental niche vary from one species to another and the relative importance of particular environmental variables for a species may vary according to the geographic and biotic contexts".
This is super important to learn as this may be a major focus in questions this year!
Organisms occupy ecological niches. The niche of an organism is the way it is adapted in response to the habitat in which it lives. It is a combination of WHERE it lives and HOW it lives. The niche reflects the ROLE that the organism performs in the biological community
- find favourable conditions OR avoid unfavourable conditions
- ensure they have all their neccessary raw materials for survival
- reduce competition (interspecific and intraspecific)
- avoid being eaten
- find a suitable mate
Below is a little recap:
The Niche
The ecological niche describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (for example, by growing when resources are abundant, and when predators, parasites and pathogens are scarce) and how it in turn alters those same factors (for example, limiting access to resources by other organisms, acting as a food source for predators and a consumer of prey). "The type and number of variables comprising the dimensions of an environmental niche vary from one species to another and the relative importance of particular environmental variables for a species may vary according to the geographic and biotic contexts".
This is super important to learn as this may be a major focus in questions this year!
- Its habitat (abiotic and biotic factors, including any if it's requirements)
- Its adaptations (any structural, physiological or behavioural traits that enable to survive in its habitat)
- Its role (e.g. producer, how it fits into a food web or interacts with other species
Organisms occupy ecological niches. The niche of an organism is the way it is adapted in response to the habitat in which it lives. It is a combination of WHERE it lives and HOW it lives. The niche reflects the ROLE that the organism performs in the biological community
Responses and the Environment:
The "aim" of every organism is to survive and produce enough offspring as possible, that is to maximize its contribution of their allele's to the gene pool. Animal responses are adaptations for survival and reproduction through:
In order to survive organisms must be able to detect (sense) and respond to the external environment. Its environment is all the different factors surrounding an organism that can affect its ability to reproduce/survive.
The "aim" of every organism is to survive and produce enough offspring as possible, that is to maximize its contribution of their allele's to the gene pool. Animal responses are adaptations for survival and reproduction through:
- Ensuring they contain sufficient energy and raw materials- nutrients, energy, water and oxygen
- Finding favourable conditions/avoiding unfavorable and surviving adverse physical conditions
- Avoid predation/reduce herbivory
- Reduce competition
- Find a mate/reproduce
In order to survive organisms must be able to detect (sense) and respond to the external environment. Its environment is all the different factors surrounding an organism that can affect its ability to reproduce/survive.
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ABIOTIC FACTORS: (non living) or sometimes also referred to as PHYSICAL factors
Include: temperature, wind, light intensity, humidity, air and water currents,salinity, PH, Oxygen, Carbon dioxide and mineral levels and substrates
Include: temperature, wind, light intensity, humidity, air and water currents,salinity, PH, Oxygen, Carbon dioxide and mineral levels and substrates