Diversity in the Living World

The variety of plants and animals found in a particular region contributes to the biodiversity of that region.

Each member in the biodiversity of a region has a different role to play. For example, trees provide food and shelter to some birds and other animals, animals help in spreading seeds after eating fruits, and so on. This shows that plants and animals are dependent on each other.

How to Group Plants and Animals?

Plants and animals can be grouped on the basis of similarities and differences among them. The method of arranging things into groups based on their common features is called grouping.

How to Group Plants?

Plants have similarities and differences based on features associated with roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and so on. The stems of different plants vary in thickness, height, and hardness, while the leaves vary in shape, colour, size and arrangement.

Plants can be grouped into herbs, shrubs, and trees based on their heights, types of stem, and branching patterns.

Some plants grow really tall and have hard, thick, brown, and woody stems. Their branches typically start higher up on the stem and away from the ground. These plants are called trees. For example, a mango tree.

Some plants are not as tall as trees. These plants often have many brown woody stems that start branching very close to the ground. These stems are hard but not as thick as the stem of a tree. These plants are called shrubs. For example, a rose plant is a shrub.

Some plants are typically small with soft and green stems. These are known as herbs. For example, a tomato plant is a herb.

Some plants with weak stems need support to climb and grow, and are called climbers. Some plants creep along the ground and are called creepers.

Venation

Thin lines on the leaves of the plants are veins. The pattern of veins on the leaf is called venation.

In some leaves, you can observe a net-like pattern of veins on both sides of a thick middle vein. This pattern is called reticulate venation. For example, leaves of hibiscus exhibit reticulate venation. In some leaves, you may observe that the veins run parallel. This pattern is called parallel venation. For example, the leaves of banana plants and grasses exhibit parallel venation.

Roots

Roots of a mustard plant consist of one main root and small side roots arising from it. The main root is called taproot. Another example of a plant having taproots is hibiscus.

Common grass plant appear as a bunch of similar-sized thin roots arising from the base of the stem. Such roots are called fibrous roots.

Cotyledons

Plants can also be grouped as dicotyledons (dicots) and monocotyledons (monocots) based on the number of
cotyledons in their seeds. Monocots generally exhibit parallel venation in their leaves and possess fibrous roots while dicots typically exhibit reticulate venation in their leaves and possess taproots.

How to Group Animals?

Animals have different types of movement that can be a basis for their grouping.

Different animals have different types of movement. Animals can fly, run, crawl, walk, hop or jump, and so on. They use different body parts for moving from one place to another. They may use wings, legs, and other parts that help them to move.

Additionally, many animals differ from each other in shape, size, structure, colour, and other features. Some of these features can also be used to group animals in various ways.

Plants and Animals in Different Surroundings

Fishes live in water. They have streamlined bodies and fins for movement in water. Goats live in grassy areas and move with the help of legs. The sizes and shapes of animals also differ from one another.

Deserts

There is very little water available in the deserts. A hot desert is typically very hot during the day and very cold at night. Therefore, plants and animals in these areas can tolerate and survive both the hot conditions during the day and cold conditions at night. The fleshy stems of plants found in the desert can store water and help them tolerate the hot conditions in these places.

In deserts, food is not available easily. Camels store food in their humps. Camels found in the hot desert have one hump each that helps them to survive during the scarcity of food. Camels found in the cold desert have two humps each. These two humps shrink in late winters because there is not much food available in the cold desert and they have to use food stored in their humps during that time. Moreover, they grow long hair from head to neck, which help them survive the cold winters of Ladakh.

Mountains

The mountains in extremely cold regions experience frequent snowfall. In order to survive in such conditions, some of the trees have the ability to let the snow slide off easily. Conical shape and sloping branches of deodar trees enable them to do so easily.

Rhododendrons are of shorter height and have smaller leaves to survive through the heavy winds on mountain tops.

Biodiversity

The biodiversity varies from region to region because of diverse conditions.

Adaptations

The plants and animals living in a particular region have special features that make them fit to survive there. The special features that enable plants and animals to survive in a particular region are called adaptations.

Habitat

The place where plants and animals live is called their habitat. For example, the habitat of sea turtles is the sea or the ocean. The habitat of a camel is the hot or the cold desert, and the habitat of a rhododendron is the mountains. The habitat of plants and animals provides them food, water, air, shelter and other needs for their survival. Many types of plants and animals may share the same habitat. Habitat plays an important role in shaping the biodiversity of a region.

The plants and animals that live on land are said to live in terrestrial habitats. Some examples of terrestrial habitats are forests, deserts, grasslands, and mountains.

The plants and animals that live in water are said to live in aquatic habitats. Some examples of aquatic habitats are ponds, lakes, rivers, and oceans.

Some animals, such as frogs, can live in water as well as on land. These are called amphibians.

Due to damage of their habitats, plants and animals lose their homes, food and other resources resulting in the loss of biodiversity. We must protect biodiversity to ensure that our planet is full of life, helping plants and animals to survive and thrive.