Plant & Animal Adaptations

1. Plant & Animal Adaptations Biology EOCT Review

2. Adaptations in Plants • Adaptation: any structure or behavior that increases an organism’s chance of survival or reproduction • Stimulus: anything in an organism’s internal or external environment that causes the organism to react. • Includes light, temperature, movement, pressure, chemicals, gravity, and sound • Tropism: a plant’s growth in a certain direction in response to a stimulus. • Toward stimulus: positive • Away from stimulus: negative

3. Plant Tropisms

4. Plant Hormones Hormone: a chemical messenger that is produced in one part of an organism and affects activities in another part of the organism

5. Structural Adaptations in Plants • These adaptations of plants can be seen in their leaves, stems, roots, flowers, and seeds. They help plants survive adverse environmental conditions. • Examples: • Deciduous trees have broad, flat leaves that are well suited for capturing sunlight • Dormancy in winter to conserve water • Conifers have flexible branches that prevent them from breaking under the weight of snow • Pollen carried by the wind

6. Functional Adaptations of Plants • Functional adaptations are related to the way an organism’s body works • Chemical defenses are also a functional adaptations to protect from predators • Example: Poison ivy, poison oak

7. Physical Adaptations of Animals Camouflage: coloring or patterns that enable an organisms to blend in with its surroundings Countershading Cryptic coloration Disruptive Coloration

8. Physical Adaptations of Animals Mimicry: an organisms’ resemblance to an object in its surrounding or to another organism Walking Stick Wasp (stings) vs Hoverfly (harmless)

9. Behavior in Animals Innate behavior: a behavior that an animal does not need to learn through experience Reflex: an involuntary response to a stimulus (ex: pulling your hand away when you touch something hot) Instinct: a more complicated innate behavior (ex: bird building a nest, courtship rituals); animals have control over these behaviors Territorial behavior is an innate behavior!

10. Behavior Migration: the instinctive seasonal movement of a species Hibernation: spending the winter in an inactive or dormant state Estivation: a reduction in an animal’s rate of metabolism in response to extreme heat

11. Learned Behavior • Learned behaviors develop during an animal’s lifetime as a result of experience • Help animals survive by responding to a changing environment • Many require practice Imprinting: the response of some animals to a stimulus that they are exposed to shortly after birth Habituation: animal learns to ignore a repeated stimulus that does not harm the animal