Back to: Jss2 Basic Science (BST)

Introduction

A “living thing” is anything that has life. They grow, reproduce, change to fit their environment, move, breathe, and react to things around them. 

Meaning of Habitat

Habitat is the natural environment in which a living thing lives. In this lesson, you will learn about the different kinds of places where living things live, how they adapt to their environments, how they grow and change, and more.

A plant, animal, or other living thing’s habitat is its natural home. It is made up of both living things and things that don’t live. Food, predators, and prey are examples of biotic factors, while light, humidity, temperature, soil, air, and water are examples of abiotic factors. 

Types of Habitat

Terrestrial habitats (land), aquatic habitats (water), and arboreal habitats (trees) are the three main types of habitats.

Terrestrial Habitat

All of the living things in the terrestrial habitat live on land. The forest, the desert, and the grassland are all types of habitats on land. Organisms that live on land either live on or under the ground. Changes in temperature, humidity, and weather happen quickly in the terrestrial habitat. This habitat isn’t the same everywhere because there are deserts, mountains, rivers, and other things that divide it. The amount of light in terrestrial habitats varies with the season and elevation. Life on land depends on the air, the temperature of the soil, and the rain. Trees, people, lions, tigers, lizards, and other animals that live on land are all examples of terrestrial organisms. Worms and moles are two examples of land animals that live underground.

The terrestrial habitat can be divided into the following zones:

• Mash
• Tropical Savannah in the rain forest
• Deserts
• Afro-alpine etc.

Aquatic Habitat

Organisms that live in the aquatic habitat live in bodies of water like freshwater, brackish water, and marine water. Water lettuce, water lilies, lotuses, papyrus, etc. are all examples of aquatic plants. Fish, the hippopotamus, the dolphin, the shark, the octopus, and so on are all examples of aquatic animals.

Arboreal habitat

Organisms that live in the arboreal habitat have evolved to live in trees. Sloths, tree kangaroos, squirrels, monkeys, etc. are all examples of animals that live in trees.

There are some animals and plants that can live in both water and on land. The word for them is “amphibious” (the Greek word amphi means on both sides, and bios mean life). like the frog and the toad. They can live both in the water and on land. Their life cycle doesn’t end in just one place. Frogs lay their eggs in water.