Review the key concepts, formulae, and examples before starting your quiz.
🔑Concepts
A habitat is the natural environment or the dwelling place of an organism that provides food, water, air, shelter, and favorable conditions for its survival.
Habitats are composed of two main components: Biotic components (living things like plants and animals) and Abiotic components (non-living things like soil, air, water, sunlight, and temperature).
Adaptation is the presence of specific features or certain habits which enable a plant or an animal to live and survive in its surroundings.
Acclimatization refers to small changes that take place in the body of a single organism over short periods to overcome small problems due to changes in the surroundings. This is different from adaptation, which occurs over thousands of years.
Terrestrial habitats include land-based environments such as Deserts, Mountains, and Grasslands. In Deserts, plants like cacti have spines to reduce water loss via transpiration ( loss).
Aquatic habitats include water-based environments. They are categorized into Marine (saltwater) and Freshwater (rivers, lakes, ponds).
Marine organisms often have streamlined bodies and gills to use oxygen () dissolved in water.
In Mountain regions, trees are often cone-shaped with sloping branches to allow rainwater and snow to slide off easily.
📐Formulae
💡Examples
Problem 1:
Explain how a Camel is adapted to survive in the desert habitat with respect to water conservation.
Solution:
- It excretes a small amount of urine. 2. Its dung is dry and it does not sweat. 3. It can drink a large amount of water at once and stay without for many days.
Explanation:
Since camels lose very little water () from their bodies through these biological adaptations, they are perfectly suited for the arid desert environment.
Problem 2:
Why do plants in aquatic habitats have hollow and light stems?
Solution:
The hollow and light stems help the plants to float on the surface of the water or stay upright within the water current.
Explanation:
Buoyancy is essential for aquatic plants to reach the surface for sunlight and to exchange gases like and effectively.
Problem 3:
Identify the adaptive features of animals living in extremely cold mountain regions.
Solution:
Animals like the snow leopard have thick fur on their bodies, including feet and toes. Yaks have long hair to keep them warm.
Explanation:
Thick fur acts as an insulator, trapping air and preventing the loss of body heat to the cold environment where temperatures can drop well below .