Adaptations to salt concentration

The concentration of salt in the environment is very important because controls the amount
of water that goes in and out of an organism’s cells by osmosis:

◦ High concentration of salt → Water leaves the organism

◦ Low concentration of salt → Water enters the organism

● Cartilaginous saltwater fish and marine invertebrates. The concentration of salt inside
the cells is similar to the concentration of the water. They have a salt-secreting gland
near their caudal fin

● Bony saltwater fish. Fish excrete salt through their gills and produce very little and
highly concentrated urine.

● Marine birds expel a concentrated salt solution through special salt glands connected
to their nostrils

● Halophytes like black mangrove expels salt through its leaves using specialised salt
glands.

● Bony freshwater fish. Fish don’t drink and excrete large amounts of a low concentrated
urine.

Adaptations to lack of food

Food can be scarce at certain times of year.

Adaptations in mammals:

◦ Storing energy reserves in their bodies (bears)

◦ Hibernation (heart and respiratory rate slow down, decreasing body temperature).
◦ Storing food in hidden places (squirrels)

Adaptations in reptiles:

◦ Spend cold months in a lethargic state, like hibernating animals.

◦ Reduced metabolism
◦ Reserves of nutrients stored in their bodies.

Other adaptations:

◦ Migrating to find food (fish, birds and mammals).

How living things change their environment

Living things and their activities can modify their environments in a
number of different ways.
 ● Oxygen in atmosphere: photosynthetic organisms produce O2 and release in into the
atmosphere.

● Many organisms are aerobic: they use O2 in cellular respiration producing large
amounts of energy and CO2.

● CO2 is a greenhouse gas because absorbs IR radiation and keeps Earth’s average
temperature about 14 ºC (instead of -2 ºC), allowing life development.

◦ Plant roots, lichens and the action of some animals (earthworms) break up
rocks and turn the soil. This makes it easier for erosion to occur and makesoil more fertile.

◦ Some sedimentary rocks are formed from layers of microorganisms

(Foraminifera).

◦ The accumulation of large number of coral skeletons can create islands.

◦ Trees increase the humidity of an area because they stop the sunlight
reaching the ground.
◦ The evaporation of water from the leaves of plants creates a humid
microclimate.

◦ Some plants have deep roots and can live near sand.
◦ Those roots help hold the soil and prevent erosion (dunes).

◦ Human beings modify the environment in the most obvious ways:

◦ Large buildings, roads, airports, ports...
◦ Contamination and air pollution
◦ Agriculture
◦ Forest fires

Populations

A population is a group of organisms of the same species that live in the same territory and
can reproduce together.

◦ Being part of a population can provide advantages for the individuals in

those populations, but there can also be disadvantages:
◦ Advantages:

◦ Easy reproduction – if organisms can reproduce easily, they produce more

offspring, so the chances of survival are higher.

◦ Protection against adverse environmental conditions – for example, animals

that can huddle together when its cold can provide extra warmth to help
survival.
 ◦ More efficient defence against predators – groups of individuals can provide
greater defence against predators, e.g. some animals that are prey to lions
group together to protect their young from attack.

◦ Disadvantages:

◦ Competition between individuals – reproduction is not as easy and

resources are scarcer.

◦ Appearance of infectious diseases – when a large number of individuals are

together, the likelihood of contracting and passing on infectious diseases is
much greater.

◦ Lack of space – when there are too many individuals in a population, there
can be problems with a lack of living space and of resources, such as food
and water.

The individuals that make up a population can be distributed in three main ways:

The population is distributed The population is distributed The population is distributed

without specific groupings in groups with little space with regular spaces between
or organisation between the members of a group each individual

Intraspecific relationships

are established among the individuals of a population to

◦ Facilitate reproduction
◦ Make finding food easier

Intraspecific relationships can be:

◦ Cooperative
◦ Competitive
◦ By passive transport

1.) Cooperative

Individuals group in order to make their life easier. Some of these relationships are
permanent and others are just temporary.

- Colonies: individuals join intimately and are a result of asexual reproduction (all the
individuals are genetically identical).
◦ Corals: individuals are the same
◦ Portuguese man-of-war: individuals are different

- Families: they are relationships between parents and their offspring, so the parents can
look after the offspring. Temporary or permanent.
 ◦ According to the individuals that form them:
◦ Parental: made up by the parents and their offspring (pigeons).
◦ Matriarchal: made up by the mother and her offspring (chickens).
◦ Filial: made up only by offspring (red tilapia)

◦ According to the number of parents they have:

◦ Monogamous: one male and one female (cormorants)
◦ Polygamous: one male, several females (sea lions)
◦ Polyandric: one female, several males (ospreys)

- Caste system: individuals organised in a hierarchic way, descendants of a particular

female. They have anatomical and physiological differences, and they divide communal
work. (Termites, bees and ants.)

- Social: individuals live together to help each other mutually for a specific period of time to
search for food, defend themselves from predators, migrate long distances (herds and
flocks) or to reproduce (monkeys).

2.) Competitive

Individuals have to compete for a limited resource (sunlight, food, space

or individuals for mating).

◦ This type of competition controls populations.

- By passive transport

The mechanical action of some agents (wind, water) makes individuals of the same
species group together. Mosquitoes, and other insects, are grouped by the effect of air
currents.

3.) Communities or Biocoenosis

A community or biocoenosis is the group of populations of different organisms that live in the
same geographical area and have relationships between each other.

Biodiversity is the biological variability among and between species in a community.

Biodiverse communities are more stable, as they present a greater number of relationships
between species.

Communities tend to have a predominant species. In the case of plants, they give the name
to the community, for example, a pine forest.

In complex communities, such as forests, individuals are distributed in different areas:

◦ Herbaceous strata
◦ Shrubby strata
◦ Arboreal strata
◦ Understory trees
◦ Lower canopy
◦ Canopy

Interspecific relationships

The relationships between individuals of different species that can be favourable or harmful
for the species involved:

◦ Favourable
◦ Mutualism
◦ Symbiosis
◦ Commensalism
◦ Protocooperaion

◦ Harmful
◦ Parasitism
◦ Predation
◦ Competition

1.) Mutualism:Both organisms benefit, but do not have a permanent relationship as it is

not essential for the survival of the species involved. It can be considered as a
biological exchange between species.

2.) Symbiosis: Type of mutualism in which an intimate and permanent relationship is

established. Strong dependence between both individuals,called symbionts.

- Endosymbiosis

- Ectosymbiosis

3.) Commensalism: One of the organisms benefits and the other is neither favoured nor
harmed. Scavengers (vultures, hyenas...)

4.) Inquilinism: An organism uses the other one as a host.

5.) Protocooperation: Similar to mutualism, it benefits both participants. The

relationship is not essential for the survival and one species does not favour the
development of the other.

6.) Parasitism: A parasite benefits from a host, harmed by the relationship, without
killing it in the short term.
 - Ectoparasite: fleas, ticks, lice.
- Endoparasites: Plasmodium (intracellular), tapeworms (extracellular).

7.) Social parasitism

8.) Predation: A predator feeds on a prey, killing it, so both individuals fight for their
survival.

9.) Competition: Two species compete for the same resource (territory, food or
sunlight). Between species with similar needs, affecting their evolution by natural
selection.

What is an ecosystem?

The combined group of:

· living things,
· the physical factors of the environment where they live,
· the biotic and abiotic relationships between them

1.) Biotope: the physical environment in which all living things live.

2.) Biocoenosis: the populations that form the ecosystem.

3.) Habitat: the place in an ecosystem where a species lives.

4.) Ecological niche: the role that a species plays in an ecosystem.

Ecotones

Ecotones are the transitional areas between two communities in a particular ecosystem,
where two communities meet and integrate.

They are ecological borders, so they are not precise borders:

- Sometimes we can see a clear border that separates the communities and sometimes
there is a transition area between both communities.
- Ecotones are considered to be biologically rich areas.