UNIT 6: LIVING THINGS AND HABITATS

- Habitat is the place where living things live. Every living thing has a different habitat.

WHAT IS A HABITAT?

- Living things interact with other living things in their habitat. They are adapted to their habitats. - Human activity can destroy habitat. - In each habitat have living things and non-living things.

- The physical enviroment of a habitat is made up of non-living things like water, air, soil, light and temperature. 1. Water: all living things need water. Some plants and animals need water t olive in. Others only need water to drink. 2. Air, soil and light: Plants need carbon dioxide from air, minerals from soil and light from Sun to make their food. All living things need oxigen from air to breathe. 3. Temperature: some living things can live in very cold places and other living things in hot places. They cannot survive if the temperature of their habitat becomes too hot or too cold.

PHYSICAL ENVIROMENT

- Biological enviroment is all the living things that live in a habitat. - Living things interact with each other in different ways: 1. Interaction through the food chain: Plants make their own food. Rabbits eat plants and foxes eat rabbits. Different living things interact in the same habitat because of food. For example: cheetas hunt deer. 2. Interaction due to competition: living things compete for the same resources. Different living things interact in the same habitat because of food. This is called competition.For example: trees and other plants in a forest compete for light, water and minerals. 3. Interaction due cooperation: many mammals and birds work together in groups to find food and defend themselves against enemies. This is called cooperation. Some insect, like bees and ants, form groups where each member has specific tasks. For example: different species cooperate, some birds eat parasites on buffalos body and the birds also warns the buffalo of danger. Same species cooperate and compete with each other, for example, zebras compete to find the best grass. But they cooperate to warn each other of danger, like the presence of a lion.

BIOLOGICAL ENVIROMENT

- There are different types of habitats. The conditions are different in each habitat and all living things adapt to the habitat they live in to survive. - Animals adapt in different ways. For example, ducks are adapted to life in water. Their webbed feet to swim quickly, their skin keeps their feathers dry, their long neck helps them find food in the water, their flat beak filters water for food. - Tulips adapted to survive and reproduce. In winter, the stem and leaves die but the bulb survives. The bulb lives under the ground until spring when a new plant grows. The flower of tulip has bright colours to attract insects that pollinate it. - Polar bears live in cold habitats, they have thick fur. It is white to camouflage in snow and ice. They have strong claws and theeth to catch their prey. - Cactuses grow in deserts. They store water in their stem. Their spines protect them from animals. - Cheetah is carnivore that hunts on the savannah. Their body is adapted to run very fast and catch its prey.

ADAPTING TO THE HABITAT

- Living things change enviroment. When rabbits eat plants they reduce the number of plants. When foxes hunt rabbits reduce the number of rabbits. This actions together maintain a natural balance in the enviroment. Human activity can change the natural balance. Human can affect living things directly or indirectly. Directly: human affect directly other living things when they kill or destroy their habitat. For example, the Iberian lynx is in danger of extinction because human have destroyes a lot of its habitat. Indirectly: we change the physical or biological enviroment. When we pollute rivers and lakes, the living things in them may die. Living things are also affected when we cut down or burn trees. For example, many turtles are in danger of extinction because of fishing and tourism. The Iberian imperial Eagle has lost a lot of its natural habitat and prey. Holly is a protected shrub.

LIVING THINGS IN DANGER