Science notes (unit 4)

4.1-
Sonoran Desert in Arizona in the USA, deserts do not
get much rainfall, so the organisms that live there must
have adaptations.
Saguaro cacti are in the Sonoran Desert, their
roots spread widely ready to absorb any rain that
falls.
Gila woodpeckers make holes in the cacti to make their
nests.
Cactus wrens use a different kind of cactus called
teddy bear cholla, to make their nests. Teddy
bear chollas are so spikey that only a few
animals will get close to them. So cactus wren’s
eggs and young ones are protected from
predators.
During the hot day, lizards, tortoises and other animals
rest in the shade of plants or burrow into the soil which
is cooler. At night, when the temperature falls kangaroo
rats come out to feed, wary of their predators such as
rattlesnakes and coyotes.
It usually rains heavily once a year in the
Sonoran Desert.
Insects feed on nectar and pollen in flowers helping the
plants to reproduce by pollinating them.
At night, bats feed on nectar from agave plants.
Interact: affect one another.
There are also interactions between the
organisms and the non-living parts of their
environment.
 Light: helps plants to photosynthesize producing
food that other organisms can eat.
 Temperature: the temperature is often very high
during the day but much lower at night.
 Soil: rocks and soil provide minerals for lants and
building material for ground nesting birds.
 Water: all organisms need water to keep their cells
alive.
 Air: the desert air provides carbon dioxide for the
plants to use in photosynthesis and oxygen for all
organisms to use in respiration.
Nocturnal: active at night
Ecosystem: a network of interactions between all the
living organisms in a habitat and the non-living things
around them.
Some of the interactions involve food webs.
Ecology: the study of organisms in their natural
environment.
Habitat: the place where an organism naturally
lives.
Some habitats are:
 Saguaro cacti: open desert
 Gila woodpeckers: saguaro cacti
 Desert ant: underneath rocks and soil and on soil
surface.
 Termites: base of saguaro stems
  Sap beetles: inside saguaro flowers
 Kangaroo rats: in burrows and come out to look
for food.

Difference between habitat and ecosystem: a

habitat is where an organism naturally lives
but an ecosystem is a network of interactions
between living and non-living things.
4.2-
Mangrove forest: trees that can grow with their roots in
sea water.
 Young fish live among their roots safe from larger
fish that might eat them. Mud skippers climb out
onto mud when the tide is out and feed on
whatever the find.
 When mangrove leaves fall into the mud, they
are decomposed by bacteria. Prawns and crabs
partly decompose them.
 Crab-eating macaques, a type of monkey climb
through the tress and catch crabs on the tree
roots or mud.
Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean: During the winter
the Arctic Ocean is so cold that the water
freezes.
 Seals hunt for fish the water but come to
the surface to breathe air.
 Polar bears patrol the ice and are good
swimmers.
 Arctic foxes also look for food on ice.
  Enough light passes through the ice to
allow tiny algae to grow on the underside
of ice floes.
 Tiny shrimp-like organisms eat the algae
and fish eat the shrimp-like organisms.
Rice paddy:
 The area of rice paddies in Malaysia is farmed by
people.
 At sometimes of year, the paddy fields are
flooded with water. Algae grown in this shallow
water.
 Fish swim into the flooded paddies from the
irrigation canals, frogs and dragonflies breed in
the water.
 Because the water is shallow, it heats up quickly
during the day and cools down quickly during the
night.
 Farmers often add fertiliser to the paddy fields to
make rice and make algae grow faster providing
food for other animals.
 Many birds feed in and around the paddy fields.
Materials to trap organisms:
o Pitfall trap, it is set in the ground allowing
small animals that crawl over the surface to
fall and not get out.
o Sweep net, it is used for catching insects
through grass or ponds or small streams.
o Apparatus, it is used to find insects in the
lower branches of a tree, you gently hit a
branch with the stick and hold the sheet
underneath or an upside-down umbrella.
 o Hand lens, its used for looking at very small
organisms.
o Camera, its used for taking photographs.
o Books, to try to identify the animals and
plants you have.
4.3-
New Zealand is a country in the Pacific Ocean. It
became separated from all the areas of land about 66
million years ago. Because of the separation, the
species that developed in New Zealand were different
from anywhere else on Earth.
Before humans arrived there were no predatory
mammals there, many of the native species of
birds nest on the ground since there were no
predators to eat their eggs so they were safe.
Even the adults of several species of native bird-
such as kiwi-cannot fly.
Humans probably arrived about 700 years ago, they
brought species of animals that didn’t belong in New
Zealand. For example, rats stowed on their boats and
now live in most of the country, they eat birds eggs and
young birds.
Then, farmers brought sheep to use for wool and
meat, rabbits were brought on sailing ships to
use as food but they escaped and began to eat
the grass in sheep pastures, so people brought
stoats from Europe to control the rabbits.
Now stoats are all over New Zealand, they are fierce
hunters and breed rapidly. They have made several
species of native bird extinct such as the laughing owl
and New Zealand thrushes, they eat almost 60% of kiwi
chicks.
Scientists think that 53 species of native bird in
New Zealand have become extinct since the
humans arrived. The extinctions have been partly
by people hunting and killing the birds but
mostly because of introduced invasive species.
Native species: types of organisms that live in their
natural habitat.
Extinct: no longer existing.
Eradicate: completely get rid of.
Invasive species: species that has been
introduced into an ecosystem where it does not
belong.
4.4-
DDT is an insecticide, which means that it kills insects.
It was first produced in 1940s, it was used to kill insects
that transmit diseases, especially useful for killing
mosquitoes that transmit malaria and fleas that
transmit a disease called typhus DDT was also used to
kill insects that eat crops.
In 1962 an American author called Rachel Carson
wrote a book called silent spring she described
how DDT was killing not only mosquitoes but also
birds, her book made many people realise that
some insecticides including DDT are very harmful
to the environment. Scientists now understand
how it causes harm to ecosystems.
DDT does not break down, it’s a persistent chemical, its
stays in the environment and is not broken down by
decomposers. When it gets into an animal’s body, it
stays there for the whole life an never breaks down. It
is very harmful to many kinds of animals and toxic. For
example, it makes the shells of bird’s eggs very thing
and easy to break.
Persistent: stays in the environment for a long
time.
Cormorants: fish-eating birds
Bioaccumulation: gradual increase of a substance
in an organism’s body; it happens when the
substance cannot be broken down inside the
body cells.
Biomagnification: increase of the concentration of a
substance as you go up a food chain.

Finally done!