The Living Organism Characteristics And Habitat Class 6

Explore the BOSEM Class 6 Science chapter 9 ‘The Living Organism Characteristics And Habitat. Learn about unique traits of living organisms, their habitats, and how they adapt to their environments.”

The Living Organism Characteristics And Habitat

This chapter introduces students to the diverse world of living organisms and their surroundings, known as habitats. It covers essential characteristics that differentiate living organisms from non-living things and explains how different organisms adapt to their environments.

Key Topics In This Chapter

1. Characteristics of Living Organisms
   • Growth: All living organisms grow. For instance, humans grow taller and plants increase in height and size over time.
   • Movement: Living beings show movement, such as animals walking, birds flying, or even plants like sunflowers moving towards sunlight.
   • Respiration: Every living organism breathes. Humans inhale oxygen, and plants respire through tiny pores called stomata.
   • Response to Stimuli: Organisms react to their environment, like plants bending towards light or humans reacting to touch and sound.
   • Reproduction: Living things produce offspring, helping ensure the survival of their species.
   • Excretion: Organisms expel waste products. Animals excrete through organs, while plants release waste via leaves.
   • Nutrition: Living organisms need food for energy, which they obtain through different methods, such as photosynthesis in plants or hunting in animals.
2. Habitat and Adaptation
   • Definition of Habitat: A habitat is the natural environment where an organism lives, which provides everything it needs, such as food, water, and shelter.
   • Types of Habitats: The chapter categorizes habitats into terrestrial (land) and aquatic (water) types, explaining examples like forests, deserts, oceans, and rivers.
   • Adaptation: Organisms develop unique features to survive in their specific habitats. For example, camels are adapted to desert life by storing water and withstanding extreme temperatures, while fish have gills for breathing underwater.
3. Diversity of Habitats
   • Students learn how diverse habitats support unique organisms, from plants in rainforests to animals in the polar regions. This diversity illustrates how each habitat has specific conditions suitable for particular life forms.

Solutions For The Living Organism Characteristics And Habitat

Textbook exercises

Q1. What is a habitat?
Ans: A habitat is where organisms live and get their food, water, air, shelter and other needs for survival.

Q2. How are cactus adapted to survive in a desert?
Ans: The following are the adaptations of cacti to survive in the desert;

Q3. Fill in the blanks.

1. The presence of specific features, which enable a plant or an animal to live in a particular habitat is called Adaptation.
2. The habitat of the plants and animals that live on land is called Terrestrial habitat.
3. The habitats of plants and animals that live in water are called Aquatic habitats.
4. Soil, water and air are the Abiotic factors of a habitat.
5. Changes in our surroundings that make us respond to them are called Stimuli.

Q4. Which of the things in the following lists are non-living?

1. Plough
2. mushroom
3. Sewing machine
4. Radio
5. Boat
6. Water hyacinth
7. Earthworm

Ans: Plough, sewing machine, radio and boat are the non-living things.

Q5. Give an example of a non-living thing, which shows any two characteristics of a living thing.
Ans: Example: Cloud
The two characteristics of living things which the cloud shows are:

1. A cloud grows in size
2. A cloud moves in the sky.

Q6. Which of the non-living things listed below, were once part of a living thing?
Butter, Leather, Soil, Wool, Electric bulb, Cooking oil, Salt, Apple, Rubber
Ans: Butter, Leather, Wool, Cooking oil, Apples, and Rubber are the non-living things that are extracted from living things. so they were once part Of a living thing.

Q7. List the common characteristics of the living things.
Ans: The common characteristics of the living things are:

Q8. Explain why speed is important for survival in the grasslands for animals that live there.
(Hint: There are few trees or places for animals to hide in grassland habitats.)
Ans: Grassland is mainly dominated by grasses. There are few trees or places for animals to hide. They can only survive and escape if they run very fast. That is why speed is important for survival in the grasslands for animals. For example, deer have to run faster than lions and tigers and if they don’t have speed, they cannot survive and will be eaten by the predators.

Watch this video (Language: Meiteilon)

Watch about adaptation (Language: English)

Extra Questions and answers: The Living Organism Characteristics And Habitat

QI. Define adaptation.
Ans: Adaptation is the presence of specific features or certain habits which enable an organism to live naturally in its habitat. Adaptation of organisms differs depending on their habitat.

Q2. Name two types of habitat.
Ans: Terrestrial habitat and Aquatic habitat.

Q3. Give two characteristics of free-floating plants of aquatic habitat. Give Example.
Ans:

1. Free-floating plants remain in contact with water and air but are not rooted in soil.
2. They have numerous cavities filled with air which make them porous and help in floating in water. Example water hyacinth, red fern etc.

Q4. Write down the features of fish that help them to survive under the water.
Ans: The features of fish are given below:

Q5. Why do mountain animals have thick skin and bodies covered with fur?
Ans: Mountain habitat is normally very cold and windy, and there is snowfall in winter. So in order to survive there and to keep their body warm, mountain animals have thick skin and bodies covered with fur.

Q6. What is transpiration?
Ans: Transpiration is the loss of water from the leaves of the plant.

Q7. Distinguish between breathing and respiration.
Ans: Breathing is the process of taking in oxygen and giving out of carbon dioxide by an organism. It is a part of respiration whereas Respiration is the process in which an organism obtains energy by breaking down the food in the presence of oxygen.

Q8. Name the breathing organ of the following animal
Earthworms, Fish, Plants, Humans, Frogs.

Ans:

Q9. Define stimuli. Explain by giving an example.
Ans: Changes in our surroundings that make us respond to them are called stimuli.
Example: wild animals run away when a bright light is flashed towards them. Cockroaches run and hide when the kitchen light is on. When a thorn pricks our finger we pull our hand. Plant like Mimosa close their leaves when touched.

Q10. How do plants reproduce?
Ans: Plant reproduces through seeds, cutting of vegetative parts and through buds.

Q11. Why do we feel warm when we put our hands inside a sack of wheat?
Ans: We feel warm inside a sack of wheat because heat is produced inside the sack of wheat through the respiration of seeds.

Q12. What is the difference between living and non-living things?
Ans: Living things can reproduce, move, have senses and respond to stimuli, and need food and respiration whereas non-living things cannot reproduce, cannot move, have no sense organs, require no food and energy and have no respiration.

Notes for The Living Organism Characteristics And Habitat

1. Plants and animals found in different places are different.
2. Habitat is the place where organisms live and get their food, water, air, shelter and
other needs for their survival.

👉 Types of Habitat:

a. Terrestrial Habitats: It is the habitats On land.
Examples: Deserts, Mountain regions, Grasslands, Forests etc.
b. Aquatic Habitats: It is the habitats of plants and animals that live in water.
Example: Oceans, River, Lakes, Ponds etc.

👉 Components of habitats:

1. Biotic components: All the living creatures living in a habitat constitute the biotic components of that habitat.
   example: Plants, Animals. Micro-organisms.
2. Abiotic components: These include all the non-living things of the habitat.
   Example: Soil, water, air, temperature, rainfall etc.

👉 Adaptation: Adaptation is the presence of specific features or certain habits which enable an organism to live naturally in its habitat. Adaptation of organisms differs depending on their habitat.

👉 Adaptation in desert animals:

1. They have long legs to keep their bodies away from the heat of the sand.
2. Other animals which do not have long legs stay in a burrow deep in the sand during the daytime and comes out only at night when it Is cooler.
3. They excrete small amounts of urine, and dry dung and do not sweat to conserve water.

👉 Adaptation in desert plants

1. Leaves are modified into spines to reduce water loss from the leaves through transpiration.
2. The stem is thick and fleshy.
3. Stems have a thick waxy coating to retain water in the tissues.
4. Photosynthesis in desert plants is carried out by the stems.
5. Roots are deeply rooted in the soil to absorb water.

👉 Adaptation in Mountain Animals

1. They have thick skin and their whole body Is either covered with fur or long hair to keep them warm.
   Example: Snow leopard, yaks.
2. Some have strong hooves for running up the rocky slopes of the mountains.
   Example: Mountain Goat.

👉 Adaptation in Mountain Plants.

1. Trees are cone-shaped and have sloping branches which help the rainwater and snow to slide off easily.
2. The leaves have a needle-like structure.
   Example: Pine Tree.

👉 Adaptation in Grassland animals

Lion (Predator)

1. Lion has a light brown colour which helps to hide in dry grasses when it hunt for prey.
2. It has long claws in its front legs and sharp teeth.
3. Eyes are in the front of the face which helps to see their prey from a long distance.

Deer (Prey)

1. Deer have strong teeth for chewing the hard stems of plants
2. It has long ears to hear the movements of the predators.
3. Eyes on the side of its head allow it to look in all directions for danger.
4. Deer is a fast runner to escape away from predators.

👉 Aquatic habitat

Adaptation in sea animals:

1. Sea animals have streamlined bodies to help them move easily in water. But bottom-feeder animals like squid and octopus do not have streamlined body shapes. However, when they move, they make their body shape streamlined.
2. they have gills for breathing but dolphins and whales do not have gills instead they breathe through nostrils or blowholes.
3. They have flat fins and tails.
4. They have scales in their bodies.

👉 Ponds and Lakes

Adaptation in frogs

1. They have webbed feet which helps them to swim in water.
2. Skin is always moist.
3. They can stay both on land as well as in water.
4. They have strong back legs that help them in leaping and catching their prey.

Adaptation in Aquatic Plants:

1. Plants may be free-floating, rooted and submerged in water.
2. Free-floating plants remain in contact with water and air but not rooted in soil. they have numerous cavities filled with air which makes them porous and helps in float in water.
   Example: Water hyacinth, Red fern etc.
3. Rooted plants are fixed in the mud, and have long leaf stalk which helps leaves and flowers to float on the surface of the water.
   Example: Lotus, water chestnut etc.
4. Submerged plants may or may not be rooted in the mud, whole plants are submerged in water. Leaves are thin and ribbon-like to bend in water.
   Example: Hydrilla, eel grass etc.

👉 Characteristics of a living organisms

1. Living organisms need food for energy and growth.
2. They can grow from young ones to adults.
3. All the living organisms respire.
4. They can reproduce their offspring.
5. They can excrete unwanted residue from their body.

👉 Breathing: This is the process of taking in oxygen and giving out carbon dioxide by an organism

👉 Respiration: Respiration is the process in which an organism obtains energy by breaking down the food in the presence of oxygen.

👉 Excretion: It is the process of removing unwanted waste from the body of an organism.