week 3

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Species Adaptations Brochure

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Plant and animal adaptations to survive… thrive… in harsh environments are just downright cool!  In this assignment, you will get a chance to identify and explore morphological and physiological features of plant and animal species with particular adaptations to heat and drought.  

You are to create a 1-2 page educational brochure that includes 3 plant species and 3 animal species’ adaptations to heat and/or drought.  Your brochure should include the following for each species:

  • pictures of the species with their scientific and common names
  • the species geographic range (maps work well for this)
  • brief summary of their life strategy and habitat
  • descriptions of their specific adaptations
  • citations for sources of information (be sources are credible)

To complete this assignment you will need to be resourceful…. meaning you will need to search the web for species and determine the credibility of the information you find.  You may also need to find guidance on creating an educational brochure.  There is plenty of information and examples out there. 

Your grade for this part of the assignment will be largely based on content and credibility of sources (80%), however visual design and organization of information will account for about 20% of the grade. 

To help you with this assignment here are some sources of information.  Please find your own species examples; do NOT use the ones provided in these sources. 

Plant and animal adaptations to hot and dry environments and to disturbance such as grazing underlie the high degree of biodiversity of rangelands.  In this unit, YOU will explore these adaptations for both plants and animals via these materials and your assignment. 

:  This is a web page of a University of Las Vegas faculty member that has a great simple summary of plant adaptations and strategies.

Dimmitt, M. (1997).. Sonorensis, Vol. 17, No. 1.  Easy to read web page of desert plant adaptations and strategies (similar to above link) from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Although these two resources might be somewhat redundant, together they provide a robust overview of animal adaptations to rangeland environments.

: great easy to read website with a lot of information related to deserts

Same basic information, but with an international angle, particularly African rangeland environments (short & easy to read):  Abere, S. A. and N.S. Oguzor.  2011. .  World Journal of Zoology 6 (2): 209-214.