B4.1  Adaptation to Environment

Guiding Questions:  
Guiding questions help students view the content of the syllabus through the conceptual lenses of both the themes and the levels of biological organization.

• How are the adaptations and habitats of species related?
• What causes the similarities between ecosystems within a terrestrial biome?

​​Linking Questions:  
Linking questions strengthen students’ understanding by making connections between topics.  The ideal outcome of the linking questions is networked knowledge.

• What are the properties of the components of biological systems?
• Is light essential for life?

Resources:

• ​Quizlet study set for this topic.  Coming soon!​

B4.1.1— Habitat as the place in which a community, species, population or organism lives.

• Define habitat.
• List characteristics that can be used to describe a habitat.​

B4.1.2— Adaptations of organisms to the abiotic environment of their habitat.

• Define adaptation. 
• Explain how natural selection can lead to adaptations of organisms to the abiotic environment of their habitat.
• Outline the physiological, morphological and/or behavioral adaptations of Marram grass to live in sand dune environments.
• Outline the physiological, morphological and/or behavioral adaptations of a mangrove tree that lives in a coastal intertidal zone.​

B4.1.3— Abiotic variables affecting species distribution.

• List abiotic variables that affect plant species distribution.
• Outline an example of an abiotic variable that affects an animal species distribution.​

B4.1.4— Range of tolerance of a limiting factor.

• Define “range of tolerance.”
• Discuss the relationship between adaptations, a species distribution and its range of tolerance for an abiotic factor.
• Describe methods for ethically determining the range of tolerance of a species. ​​
• Sketch a graph to illustrate the range of tolerance of an organism to an abiotic variable.

B4.1.5— Conditions required for coral reef formation.

• List abiotic conditions required for the formation of coral reefs.
• Discuss the relationship between the distribution of coral reefs and the coral’s range of tolerance to abiotic variables. ​

B4.1.6- Abiotic factors as the determinants of terrestrial biome distribution.

• Define biome.
• State the two abiotic factors that are the principal determinants of biome distribution. 
• Interpret a graph depicting the relationship between temperature, rainfall and most likely biome.

B4.1.7— Biomes as groups of ecosystems with similar communities due to similar abiotic conditions and convergent evolution.

• Outline climate conditions that characterize the tropical forest, temperate forest, taiga, grassland, tundra and hot desert biomes.
• Describe how the process of convergent evolution will lead to development of similar adaptations in a biome even if they are widely separated.
• Describe an example of convergent evolution in two widely separated ecosystems of the same biome.
  

B4.1.8- Adaptations to life in hot deserts and tropical rainforest.

• Outline the physiological, morphological and/or behavioral adaptations of an animal living in a hot desert.
• Outline the physiological, morphological and/or behavioral adaptations of a plant living in a hot desert.
• Outline the physiological, morphological and/or behavioral adaptations of an animal living in a tropical rainforest.
• Outline the physiological, morphological and/or behavioral adaptations of a plant living in a tropical rainforest.