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In this blog post, we will talk about the special adaptations and competition of organisms in I/GCSE Biology. Let's get started! 🐒
Keeping others away
- For organism to grow, mature, produce offspring = avoid being eaten by other microorganisms
- It's commonly asked in I/GCSE Biology!
Special adaptations – avoid being eaten
- Physical deterrents e.g. cacti🌵 = thick spines
- Chemical deterrents e.g. ragwort (plant) = poisons (taste bad or kill)
- Advertise poisons with bright colours
- Camouflage – hide from predators (colours + patterns on body = difficult to see)
Can you see the animal in the following picture? 😆
Competing for resources
Reasons for competition among organisms:
- Enough resources for all organisms ➡️ rare
- Limited resources ➡️ organisms compete
- most successful ➡️ grow better + more offspring produced
Please remember to study competition of plants and animals separately in I/GCSE Biology XD!
Plants
- compete for water, light, nutrients (if grown close together)
- Bluebells ➡️ grow, flower + seed before tree fully grown (no sun blocked)
Animals
- compete for food
- Leopards ➡️ takes kill to trees (keeps other animals away from stealing their food)
- compete for mates
- Male peacocks display feathers when females around – best display ➡️ mate with the most females
- Birds 🐦 ➡️ territories when breeding
- Robins ➡️ large territory to feed young
- Birds 🐦 away from nest site e.g. penguins / gannets ➡️ small nesting territory (out of pecking distance of other adults)
References:
- "Camouflage Animals", https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/best-animal-camouflage-17.jpg
- "Competition of animals", https://weirdcooldumb.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Competition-Between-Animals.jpg
And we're done with this topic! Well Done!
Drafted by Alyssa (Biology)