490 likes | 1.17k Vues
Investigating habitats. What is a habitat?. A place where an organism lives A habitat will have certain characteristic physical conditions eg: Desert –less than 250 mm of rainfall per year-arid-sparse vegetation
E N D
What is a habitat? • A place where an organism lives • A habitat will have certain characteristic physical conditions eg: • Desert –less than 250 mm of rainfall per year-arid-sparse vegetation • Seashore –area of land which has regular submersion in sea water or splashing by sea water
Habitats around the school • Pond (Mopo)
Measuring Physical Conditions • In the pond we can measure: • Depth in different places • Temperature in shallow and deep water • pH of water • Light levels around the pond
Measuring physical conditions • In the wood we can measure: • Light levels • pH of soil • Moisture level in soil • Depth of soil
Physical conditions • These may vary with season-seasonalchanges eg temperature, length of day and light levels • These may vary at different times of the day- diurnal changes
Seasonal Changes • In the Uk there are seasonal changes in temperature, light levels, day length and rainfall. • Organisms show adaptations to cope with these changes
Adaptations to seasonal change • Deciduous trees-lose leaves in the autumn. • Trees can be damaged by snow and wind if they have a large number of leaves
Deciduous trees cont.. • Water may be frozen in the ground during the winter and so it may be difficult to replace water lost by transpiration through leaves • Photosynthesis during the winter is much reduced (dull days/short day length/cool). However, the leaves are likely to use more food than they make.
Seasonal adaptation in animals • Migration in birds- swallows fly south in winter returning in summer to breed when there is plenty of food (insects)
Seasonal Adaptation in Animals • Hibernation- small mammals lay down fat in the autumn and then find a sheltered burrow/nest in which to sleep for a few months. • During this inactive period their breathing and heart rate are lowered to eke out their stores of fat • They wake up in spring when food is easier to find and the weather is not so extreme
Diurnal changes in organisms • Flower opening- eg celandine (woodland plant) • Flowers shut at night to prevent other animals from taking pollen (food) without achieving pollination • Flowers open in the day when insects which do carry out pollination are active
Diurnal changes in animals • Bats- feed at night and sleep in the day • Although they have poor eyesight bats are adapted to flying and feeding at night by a highly developed hearing which is based on echo locationThey emit a high pitched squeak and avoid obstacles by detecting the echo Large ears -funnel echo Into ear
Techniques used to find out which organisms live in a habitat. • 1. Quadrat- a frame, often 0.5mx 0.5m wide, are place in various places and the organisms found within it are recorded quadrat
Techniques used to find out which organisms live in a habitat. • 2. Pit fall trap Method for collecting surface living animals
Techniques used to find out which organisms live in a habitat. • 3. pooter
Techniques used to find out which organisms live in a habitat • 4. sweep net Sweep net-for catching airborne insects
Techniques used to find out which organisms live in a habitat • 5. branch shaking Lay sheet on ground-shake branches-collect Dislodged animals
Techniques used to find out which organisms live in a habitat • 7. pond net
Use evidence to find out which species live in a habitat Owl pellet-indigestible bones and fur are regurgitated
Animal Dung Rabbit droppings
After collecting data about the community in the habitat then.. • We can estimate the population of an organisim in the habitat. Count the number of individual plants in the quadrat
Cont… • 1 Place quadrat in different locations within the area of study ( chosen randomly) • 2 Calculate the average number of plants per quadrat • 3 Measure the area of the sample area (length x width) • 4 Multiply the average number of plants per quadrat by the number of times that the quadrat fits in to the total area ie: • pop = av. No per quad x (total area/quadrat area)
Uneven distribution of a plant species This plant is not scattered but is found in a large clump
How can we show this uneven distribution-carry out a transect Transect line
Transect shows uneven distribution A transect shows uneven distribution
Record species found at intervals along the transect line This transect clearly shows a distribution pattern-species are recorded at stations across the line (every other metre here)
Transect across a bike track A distribution pattern exits here- Recording soil moisture, pH, light levels etc at each station may give evidence as to why