Additional information for teachers

Background information
Year 5–6, unit 2: Survival
Adaptation
An adaptation is a physical or behavioural characteristic that has developed over
time to enable an organism to survive in the environment in which it lives. Plants and
animals have evolved numerous strategies to help them survive in a range of
environments, including the extremes of the desert and the freezing temperatures of
the polar regions. Over time, plants and animals that are better suited to their
environment survive and breed, passing on their adaptations to future generations.
Those plants and animals that are not well adapted to their environment may not
survive and will not compete well against those which have adapted. Therefore, the
characteristics that help a species survive in an environment tend to be passed on,
and those that don’t help will disappear over time.
Some adaptations are structural while others are behavioural. Structural
adaptations are those that relate to the physical features of an organism that enable
it to survive in its environment. Some examples of structural adaptations include the
specialised shape of the beak of a bird, the ability of desert plants to retain water
through the shape of their leaves and the ability that some animals have to blend into
their environment through the use of camouflage.
Behavioural adaptations are the behaviours or actions that animals have
developed in order to help them survive. Some examples of behavioural adaptations
include birds migrating during the winter months, desert dwellers resting during the
extreme daytime temperatures and being more active in the cooler nights.

Desert and semi-arid regions

There are many different definitions of deserts and semi-arid regions. Some of the
things taken into consideration when defining a desert include the amount of rain per
annum, the temperature and the humidity. Deserts are dry areas that generally have
less than 250 mm of rain per annum while semi-arid regions have between 250 and
500 mm per annum.
There are two kinds of deserts: hot and cold. Hot deserts are those we are most
familiar with. Hot deserts, such as those found in central Australia, have extremely
high daytime temperatures, but the temperature at night can drop below freezing.
This happens because in a desert region there is not much moisture in the air. This
moisture usually acts as a blanket and traps some of the heat. In a desert, when the
sun goes down, the heat escapes and the temperature drops dramatically.
Cold deserts are found in places such as Antarctica and Greenland where the main
form of precipitation is snow, with a large amount of snowfall in winter.

Plant adaptations to conserve water

Plants that live in desert and semi-arid regions have adapted in different ways to
conserve water. These adaptations help them survive the extreme temperatures and

© 2013 Education Services Australia Ltd, except where indicated otherwise. You may copy, 1
distribute and adapt this material free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes,
provided you retain all copyright notices and acknowledgements.
Additional information for teachers

limited water supplies found in such harsh environments. One of the most common
ways for plants to reduce water loss is through adaptations to their leaves.
• As plants can lose a lot of moisture through their leaves, many have evolved
leaves that reduce water loss. These include much smaller, thinner, needle-
shaped leaves to reduce the surface area. This reduces the amount of water that
can evaporate from the leaves. It also means that less heat is absorbed by the
plant, thereby reducing the need for transpiration. Having smaller leaves also
reduces the amount of leaf area available for photosynthesis, which is one
reason why desert plants are often slow growers.
• Some desert plants known as succulents have thick, fleshy leaves to store water.
This enables them to draw on the water stored in their leaves during dry periods.
The thick succulent leaves also help reduce evaporation.
• Some plants have grey or light-coloured leaves which reflect sunlight. This
reduces the amount of heat absorbed and the amount of moisture lost.
• Some plants have an outer, waxy coating on their leaves called the cuticle. This
helps reduce water loss by reflecting light and reducing evaporation.
• Some plants have the ability to drop their leaves in dry periods.
• Some plants have leaves that curl or roll away from the harsh sunlight. This helps
reduce the amount of water lost through the leaves due to evaporation.
• Plants that grow in drier environments have fewer stomata, the pores found on
the epidermis (the outer layer of the leaf). By having fewer stomata the plant
reduces the amount of water lost through the leaves by evaporation. Many desert
plants also have the ability to only open their stomata during certain times of the
day, such as at night, when the water loss is greatly reduced due to there being
no direct sunlight and a reduction in temperature.
Other adaptations apart from those to leaves include the following.
• Having a double root system. Plants use their roots to bring water from the soil
into the body of the plant. A double root system means that the plant has a set of
roots near the surface of the soil and another set of roots that go much deeper.
This enables the plant to spread their roots both wide and deep to maximise the
amount of water it can get from the soil.
• Completing their life cycle within a year or less. These annual plants take
advantage of the times when moisture is available to flower and set seeds before
the dry period arrives. The seeds from this type of plant can lie dormant in the soil
until the conditions are right for growth, thereby avoiding the drought conditions.

Indigenous desert life

Before the colonisation of Australia, Indigenous people lived in all areas of Australia
including desert and semi-arid regions. The availability of water is a huge issue in
such regions. The Indigenous people had a variety of strategies to overcome this
problem and make survival in these regions possible.

© 2013 Education Services Australia Ltd, except where indicated otherwise. You may copy, 2
distribute and adapt this material free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes,
provided you retain all copyright notices and acknowledgements.
Additional information for teachers

Traditional life in these areas was nomadic, with groups of people following the cyclic
patterns of available resources. It was chiefly the supplies of water that formed the
basis for the movement of the groups. The Indigenous people had a good knowledge
of the landscape. This meant they were usually able to move from one water supply
to the next. They learnt the location of different waterholes through stories and songs.
They reduced the evaporation rate of the water they found in springs by placing large
rocks over the openings. Containers were also used to carry water on journeys
between water supplies. Indigenous people also knew which plants indicated the
presence of water and they would dig into the ground around their roots to get it.
Tree roots also store water and the Indigenous people dug and harvested water from
the roots of trees such the red mallee, as well as collecting dew from plants in the
early morning. They could also obtain water from animals such as the water-holding
frog.
For additional information see:
Skatssoon, Judy ‘Aboriginal people built water tunnels’, ABC Science website,
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/03/15/1590192.htm (15 March 2006)

How to draw an annotated diagram

An annotated diagram is a drawing that is used to illustrate an idea, object or concept.
For students, the drawing needs to contain related descriptive notes or words to help
explain and demonstrate their level of understanding. Diagrams should:
• be neat, clear and scientifically accurate
• be of a reasonable size so that details can be clearly added
• be clearly labelled, using arrows to show each feature. Arrows should be straight
lines that do not cross over each other
• contain accurate notes and information relating to the subject
• have an appropriate title
• show the scale of the drawing.

© 2013 Education Services Australia Ltd, except where indicated otherwise. You may copy, 3
distribute and adapt this material free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes,
provided you retain all copyright notices and acknowledgements.