COMPETITION + VARIATION

• what are examples of living things

  plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, protocists
• vertebrates

  animals with backbones
• invertebrates


  Animals without backbones
• examples of vertebrates


  frogs, humans, limbs
• examples of invertebrates


  slug, worm, butterfly
• what is the compwtition in animals

  food, water, territory and mates
• what is the compwtition in plants

  light, water, minerals and space
• adaptation

  A characteristic that improves an individual's ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment.
• e.g. what are tigers' adaptations


  sharp teeth, claws, eyesight, camoflage, warning signals
• how to trees cope with the seasons


  they grow rapidly when weather is wet and warm

  
  

  lose their leaves in winter

  
  

  fallen leaves provide a layer of warm around the tree

  
  

  Tree can reuse nutrients from the leaves when they

  rot.
• how do animals cope with the seasons


  Hibernation (sleep through the winter)

  Migration (move somewhere warmer, wetter, or for more food)

  Grow thicker fur

  Change fur colour
• variations

  Any difference between individuals of the same species.
• genetic variation

  the characteristics you inherit from your parents
• environmental variation


  Differences between organisms caused by environmental factors.
• e.g of human variations

  hair colour, eye colour, blood type, skin tone, height, nails, weight
• predator-prey relationships

  the number of predators and preys ina population fluctuates over time

  
  

  having a large number of predators results in more attacks on the prey

  
  

  low predator population results in insufficient prey for predation
• continous variation

  variation in a population showing an unbroken range of phenotypes rather than discrete categories
• Discontinous variation


  variation shown when the characteristics or organisms fall into distinct categories e.g. blood groups in humans.
• what is natural selection


  the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring
• e.g of elephants natural selection


  before, they used to have full tusks, but now they have broken tusks cuz people hunt for ivory