Adaptation to environmental conditions

1. Adaptation of organisms
to environmental
conditions in different
ecosystems

2. Adaptations
• The survival of each population depends on
an organism’s capacity to adapt to changes in
the ecosystem it inhabits.
• Morphologic adaptations
• Camouflage: hid in plain sight and
tricking their enemies. For example, an
insect can mimic color and shape of a
leaf in an eco-system
• Mimicry: resemble other organisms and
their own environment to survive. For
example, An insect that is equal to a leaf.

3. Structures that depend
on their environment
• In the wáter: developed respiratory organs
or fishes on deep Waters,
• Adaptations to diverse temperatures:
• Cold ecosystems: The animals that
live in very cold places retain fat
under their skin.
• Warm ecosystems: Elephants use
their ears as a fan that helps them
keep cool. Camels have a hump
where water is stored between layers
of fat.

4. Adaptations in
plants
• Temperature
• Cold: some annual plants only
preserve the most resistant organs
• seed repositories
• buds or shoots
• shed all their leaves (Guayacán)
• decrease their growth.
• Warm: to accumulate water and to
cover their structures so they can
avoid dehydration by exposure to
extreme solar radiation

5. Adaptations to light
1. Trees
2. Bushes
3. Plants such as vines
4. Epiphytes
5. Herbaceous layer

6. Adaptations
to food
• Every animal has its own specific physical structures to extract, masticate, or
chew food, ingesting and digesting food to obtain their nutrients. Their
characteristics are related to specific functions of their digestive system.

7. Carnivores
• meat-eating animals
• Mammals have short, sharp teeth to kill
and tear the meat from their prey.
• Reptiles such as the crocodile also have
sharp teeth.
• Carnivorous fish have rows of sharp
teeth.
• Carnivorous birds do not have teeth but
have curved and strong beaks.

8. Herbivores
• Herbivorous mammals have molars which are wider in
order to break and crush food. For example: horses,
cattle and rhinoceroses.
• Besides using jaws and teeth to bite, other animals
such as anteaters and frogs use adapted tongues to
capture food
• Herbivorous birds. Their claws are less developed than
those of carnivorous birds. Their beaks also have
different shapes and structures to facilitate the eating
of plants, seeds and flowers

9. Omnivores
• Animals that are both carnivorous and herbivorous
• Omnivores have teeth, fangs and molars to crush and tear
their food like monkeys do