How are Organisms Suited to Life in Wetlands?


How do organisms have the adaptations they need to exist?  The answer is found in something very small - a cell.

Gregor Mendel is the father of genetics (the study of DNA).

He was a monk who lived in Czech republic in Europe.

He studied peas, how they grew, and what made them unique. He learned about how characteristics were inherited (passed down from one generation to another).

Once, you were very small, a single cell. That cell was so small, that it would take 40 000 cells to cover the head of a pin.  Inside that cell was hidden all the instructions to make you. These instructions are a blueprint of life called DNA.

All animals have DNA too. DNA is what gives instructions for growth.

Your DNA tells your body what colour of hair you will have, what colour of eyes you have, or what shape of nose you have.

Your DNA comes from your biological parents. Half of your DNA comes from your mother. The other half of your DNA comes from your father.  These characteristics, called traits, are passed down from generation to generation. DNA allows red haired parents to have children with red hair. It allows noses in a family to be the same shape. It allows kittens to have the same coloured markings as other kittens in a litter and yet for each to be a unique and different individual.

A species is a group of organisms that are similar and can produce young.  An example of a species is the human species.

If a whole species is adapted to its environment like frogs are to wetlands, this is because the instructions have been passed down from generation to generation through DNA.

DNA

Pixabay -A snowshoe hare's abilities to run fast  and to turn white in the winter are adaptations.

Some individuals within a species are more well adapted to their environment than others.  Within a species there is variation and change. 

Animals are born with traits that are useful to their environment.   Various individuals within a species have genetically inherited traits such as to run slow, run fast, or even to run very fast.  If running very fast is important to the animal's survival in that habitat,  the animal that runs quickly will stay alive for a lot longer.  If the animal that runs very fast stays alive longer, there is more chance the animal will reproduce (have babies).  The animal babies will then also be able to run faster so they will live longer.  Over time, all organisms of that species in that habitat will be able to run very quickly.

Pixabay
This ability to adapt explains how individual traits can be removed or selected from a species in a certain habitat.  For example, crickets on the island of Kauai, Hawaii have lost the ability to chirp.  A deadly North American fly arrived on the island, located chirping male crickets and laid eggs on them.  The larvae ate the chirping crickets within a week of hatching.  Chirping is usually beneficial because it helps crickets find mates.  But now, chirping had become a disadvantage because it made the crickets an easy target for the predator to hear and catch.

Crickets did not go extinct (die out completely).  Instead, young crickets soon lacked the scraper required for sound.  This is because soundless crickets hid better and survived longer. The soundless crickets survived and passed their DNA to their children. Genetic information was removed from the cricket population because chirping crickets did not pass on their DNA to babies. The entire population became silent. This is how the crickets on the Hawaiian island of Kauai adapted to their environment between 1990 and 2003.