How Do Organisms Respond to the Environment?
Stimulus and Response
A stimulus is a change in the environment of an organism that causes a response
A response is a reaction of an organism to a change in the environment
All organisms have stimulus and response reactions.
The ability of an organism to respond to a stimulus is a basic life process.
An example of stimulus/response is when you are playing catch:
Stimulus: The ball is thrown towards you
Response: You put your hands up to catch, or deflect, the ball
Plants respond to stimuli by growing towards the light source.
Gathering Information About the Environment
An organism must be able to gather information about its environment before it can respond to any changes.
Organisms such as sharks, bats, snakes, flies, moths, and squid all have unique sensory organs that enable them to detect information such as nearby sources of food, a possible mate, or danger.
Physiological Adaptations
Physiological Adaptations are adaptations that involves a body part's job of controlling a life process.
Physiological adaptations enable an organism's body parts to do a job in response to a stimulus.
A person's ability to sweat to cool off is an example of physiological adaptation.
Plants have physiological adaptations that enable them to respond to daylight and darkness.
Shivering is a physiological adaptation in response to cold that helps increase body temperature through muscle contractions.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.