Competition

Todat we will be following on from the adaptations we looked at and talking about competition.  Asnwer the following questions in our books:

1. What is competition between organisms? - http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Competition
2. Plants compete for which resources?  - http://www.saburchill.com/ans02/chapters/chap019.html
3. Do organisms like plants or animals always compete for the same resources? - http://www.biotopics.co.uk/newgcse/Competition.html
4. When does competition occur between organisms (what conditions need to happen?)? - http://www.biotopics.co.uk/newgcse/Competition.html
5. When individuals are in competition, which ones are the most likely to survive? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/aqa/evolution/evolutionrev2.shtml
6. Explain what happens when an organism becomes adapted to a new environment (scroll down to 'competitive speciation' - http://redpath-museum.mcgill.ca/Qbp/2.About%20Biodiversity/processes.htm 
7. Try this game, making sure you take careful notice of how your animals are competing for different resources! - http://science.discovery.com/interactives/literacy/darwin/darwin.html 

Once youre finished, try http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/natures-most-amazing-events/animal-arcade/lion.html

Adaptations

We're looking at adaptations that plants and animals have to help them survive and reproduce.  We completed a practical looking at how size can help animals in different environments.  We concluded that (although some of our groups didn't work because of different water temperatures) smaller animals have a greater surface area:volume ratio and so cool down more quickly.
With plants, we defined transpiration, xylem and stomata.  You should all be able to use these in describing how plants are adapted to certain environments.  With the celery experiment we found that water moves up through the roots and xylem, then out through the stomata in the leaves.  Plants in warm conditions can lose too much water, so either have sunken stomata or less of them (or close the ones they do have).  Plants also have other adaptations to help them in hot environments, such as waxy outer layers to prevent water loss, thin leaves and stems that can store water (like a cactus).
This page from bitesize has some good information about adaptations ion hot and cold climates if you skip to the next page down the  bottom - http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/aqa/evolution/organismsrev2.shtml

If you have time, try some of the exam style questions from the textbook on the kerboodle website, page 92-3.