Living things
Theme Learning about the environment
Basic science J.S.S.2 First Term
WEEK 1
Living things
Performance Objectives
The student should be able to:
- Define what habitat is.
- Mention the types of habitat.
Content
Habitat
Think about your home. You probably woke up this morning in your bed. After getting dressed for school, you might have opened the refrigerator in your kitchen to grab some milk for your cereal and then you might have hugged your parents and pet your dog before heading out the front door. These interactions all took place in your habitat. A habitat is the natural home or environment of a plant, animal, or other organisms. It provides the organisms that live there with food, water, shelter and space to survive.
Every living organism has a habitat. Habitats vary greatly from an organism to organism, because all living things have different needs for survival. Some species have flexible habitat needs, while other species require very specific habitats in order to survive.
Take, for example, the pitcher plant, a unique carnivorous plant. These plants survive by trapping and digesting small insects. They are found in boggy areas that lack a lot of minerals but have a lot of moisture and receive a great deal of sunlight. They also require soils that have a low pH level. Given these specialized habitat requirements, there are not a lot of places in which the pitcher plants can thrive, and many species of pitcher plants are now considered endangered as a result of habitat destruction. Habitat destruction is a process in which the natural habitat is rendered functionally unable to support the species present. As more humans move into these areas and invasive plant species are introduced, the habitats of pitcher plants decrease greatly.
Types of habitat
There are two main types of habitat which are:
- Aquatic habitat
- Terrestrial habitat
- Aquatic habitat
The animals which live in water are called aquatic animals. According to the nature of the water aquatic animals may be marine or fresh-water.
Marine Animals:
About three-fourths of the earth’s surface is covered by the oceans. The saltwater serves as the home for the marine animals who can survive neither in freshwater nor on land.
The sea beach is occupied by the littoral animals, some of which live on sand, others in mud, and still others remain attached to submerged rocks or to seaweeds. The depth of the ocean is inhabited by the abyssal or deep-sea animals which are collectively known as the benthos.
The open ocean is thickly populated by the surface-dwelling pelagic animals which either swim freely or float passively and are drifted from place to place by the high waves.
The pelagic fauna is thus subdivided into nekton, which includes the active swimmers, and plankton, which includes the smaller passive forms that are at the mercy of the currents. Marine animals are more or less restricted to their own respective zone either the sea beach, or the abyssal depth of the bottom, or the surface of the open sea.
- Fresh-Water Animals:
Fresh-water animals are found in ponds, pools, rivers, lakes and swamps. Some prefer to live in stagnant water but others choose the running stream.
Terrestrial Habitats:
Terrestrial animals are those who live on the land. They may be simple surface dwellers or they may burrow beneath the soil and thus become subterrestrial. The surface communities may choose to live on rocks, or plains, or desert or damp forest. The aerial animals spend a part of their time in the air, but they depend on the surface for rest. A number of animals are arboreal, homing amongst the branches of the tree.