Ecology: Living things in and ecosystem

1. A place where plants and animals live is called habitat (eg) ponds, rocks, trees etc.
2. The environment of an organism is affected by physical factors such as sunlight, temperature, wind, pH and biotic factors such as all the living things.
3. Plants and animals have special body features or ways of behaving which help them to survive. There are called adaptions.
4. Owls are adapted to see in the night, polar bears are adapted to hibernate in the winter and so on.
5. Cactus plant is adapted to grow in deserts. They have thick and juicy stems to store water and their leaves are modified into spines.
6. Aquatic animals are adapted to live in water with less oxygen. They come to the surface to take in air.
7. pH value of water and soil also affect the organisms living in a habitat.
8. In any habitat there is usually more than one kind of organism, which depend on each other for food, shelter and protection and constitute to biotic factor.
9. Different plant and animal population living together in a habitat constitute a community. The habitat, together with the community of organisms living in it, forms an ecosystem.
10. Various physical factors and biotic factors affect life in and ecosystem. Organisms interact with each other in an environment and are adapted to live in an environment.
11. Human activities such as deforestation and over hunting damage our ecosystem. It is important to conserve the world's ecosystem and to use them wisely.