BIO100 Surviving the Winter - OPEN University

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Open University

S204_1
10 Hours

Level

Introductory

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Course Description

In this unit, we study one aspect of the fluctuating nature of an organism's environment. We consider how organisms living in a temperate climate, such as that in Britain, are adapted to cope with winter. You will see that there is much diversity of adaptations among organisms, with different species coping with the demands of a fluctuating environment in quite different ways. As cyclic variations are a widespread feature of environments, the range of adaptations to them is an important source of biological diversity.

Learning Outcomes

After studying this unit, you will be able to:

define and use, or recognise definitions and applications of, each of the terms printed in bold in the text;
identify the four main strategies shown by organisms for coping with winter;
appreciate and give examples of the levels and types of explanation used for understanding these strategies;
describe ways in which the strategies can be subjected to experimental manipulation;
provide examples of how plants, birds and mammals can remain active through winter;
give examples of organisms that survive the winter as juveniles.

	Introduction Introduction Resource In this unit, we study one aspect of the fluctuating nature of an organism's environment. We consider how organisms living in a temperate climate, such as that in Britain, are adapted to cope with winter....

	1 Surviving the winter 1.1 Living in a fluctuating environment Resource The great majority of organisms live in environments that fluctuate extensively and cyclically. For example, an animal such as a limpet living on a sea-shore experiences a 12-hour cycle in which it is... 1.2 Response to winter: understanding at different levels Resource Winter in a temperate region poses a number of environmental problems for organisms. Most obviously, average temperatures are lower than at other times of year and there are frequent frosts. Frost is highly... 1.3 Strategy 1: Remaining active through the winter (‘tough it out’) Resource In temperate regions, the most prominent evergreen plants are coniferous trees, or conifers (phylum Coniferophyta). Conifers dominate large portions of the Earth's land area, particularly at northern latitudes... 1.4 Strategy 2: dormancy in winter (‘opt out’) Resource During the winter months, a combination of factors, including lower temperatures, reduced light intensity and shorter days, means that plants can only photosynthesise at a slow rate and for restricted... 1.5 Strategies 3 and 4: juvenile survival and migration Resource For organisms that are able to complete their life cycles within a year there is the possibility of spending the winter in various juvenile stages. We have already considered annual plants, the adults... 1.6 Conclusion Resource This unit has presented an overview of the ways in which organisms living in temperate habitats are adapted to survive the winter. The unit has shown how a limited set of environmental changes associated...

	SAQs SAQs Resource Read the following account and then state which strategy from Table 1.1 it best fits.

	References and Acknowledgements References Resource Acknowledgements

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Copyright 2007, by the Contributing Authors. Cite/attribute Resource. administrator. (2010, January 30). BIO100 Surviving the Winter - OPEN University. Retrieved March 11, 2010, from Free University Courses OCW Courses OpenCourseWare Freeversity Foundation Web site: http://freeversity.org/science-and-mathematics/biology/bio100-surviving-the-winter-open-university. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License

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BIO100 Surviving the Winter - OPEN University

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Open University

Course Home (Click Here)

Course Description

Learning Outcomes

Introduction

1 Surviving the winter

SAQs

References and Acknowledgements