Plant and Animal Adaptations for Cold Environments

L/O: To understand how plants and animals adapt to cold environments.

Starter: Name one plant you would find in a cold environment

Adaptation• Adaptation is a special characteristic that

allows an organism to survive in a particular environment.

• Adaptations may be:

• physical appearance (morphology)

• internal systems (physiology)

• something an organism does (behaviour)

Cold climatesTemperatures:• arctic winter can dip to -51oC

• warmest month is between 10oC and 0oC

• Often permanent snow & ice

Plants in Cold Climates

• ‘land of the midnight sun’

Cold all year except for short period over the summer

No trees

• temperature range = - 54 to 21° C

Alaska, Siberia, Scandinavia

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/learningzone/clips/5506/

• Plants are small - usually less than 12 inches tall to avoid wind

• Plants are dark - helps them absorb solar heat.

• Small waxy leaves / needles

• Some plants are covered with hair

• Some plants grow in clumps for protection

• Some plants have dish-like flowers that follow the sun

Saxifrage Arctic Willow

Bearberry Arctic flower

Trees

• many trees are evergreen

• many trees have needle-like leaves to lose less water

• waxy coating on needles

• needles are dark in colour

• trees have branches that droop downward

Animals in Cold Climates

• Arctic animals must keep themselves warm to survive.

• You lose body heat through your body surface, mainly your skin.

• Arctic animals have developed many adaptations to help them survive…

What do these animals have in common?

Animal Adaptations to

Cold Environments

List as many adaptations to the cold climate as you can:

• Thick oily fur coats

• Layers of blubber under the skin

• May change colour in the summer

• Small ears

• Large furry feet

• Often longer snout

• Rounded body shape

Body Shape

Have fat, round body shapes with short legs.

Why is this important?

Surface Area to Volume Ratio• Animals lose heat from the body surfaces

that are in contact with the surrounding air/water.

• Reducing the contact surface reduces heat loss

• Increasing the surface increases heat loss

Surface Area to Volume Ratio

Hidden surfaces are exposed

Small SA: Vol

Larger SA: Vol

(cold climates)

(hot climates)

Which shows an animal from a hot climate and which from a cold climate?

cold hot

Using examples, write one adaptation of an animal and a plant in cold environments.

Homework: •Choose one animal OR plant that lives in a cold environment.•Research where it survives and how it survives.•E.G.:

Compare these two animals…

Desert Fox Arctic Fox

Draw a table to compare their adaptations to their environments.

Hot Desert Climates

Temperatures:

• Can reach 45 – 50oC during the day

• Can fall below 0oC at night

• Less than 25cm rain a year

Animals in Dry Climates

• Animals in dry climates have to keep themselves cool to survive.

• They also have to cope with a lack of water.

• This means they are unable to lose heat through sweating – why?

What do these animals have in

common?

List as many adaptations to the desert climate that you can:• Large thin ears

• Little body fat

• Thin silky fur

• Long limbs to help spread the heat

• They often are only active at night

• More elongated body shape

Have more elongated body shapes and long legs

Plants in Dry ClimatesAdaptations:

Can you think of any?

Make a list.

• Some plants store water in their stems or leaves = succulents

• Some plants have no leaves

• Long root systems spread out wide or go deep into the ground to absorb water

• Spines to protect from being eaten

• Plants slower growing so require less energy   

• Flowers that open at night lure pollinators who tend to be active during the night

• Hair help shade the plant, reducing water loss

Question:

• Scientists investigated two types of violet plants. One was found more frequently in shade, the shade violet. The other was found more frequently in sunny places, the sun violet.

A B

a) Which violet is which? Give a reason for your choice. [4]

A = _____________________________________________________________________________

B = _____________________________________________________________________________

The number of violets in an area of woodland were counted before and after a large number of trees

were removed. The results are shown below.

i) State how light conditions would have changed when the trees were removed. [1]

___________________________________________________________________________________

(ii) Which of the plants survived better before the trees were removed? [1]

___________________________________________________________________________________

(iii) What happened to the number of these plants after the trees were removed? [1]

___________________________________________________________________________________

Violet type Before trees removed2 years after treesremoved

5 years after treesremoved

Shade 190 50 30

Sun 20 60 120