How does an adaptation increase a populations chances of survival and reproduction in a particular enviroment?

Question

And give me an example..

~Thanks~

Answer 1

Certain adaptations are beneficial because they allow the organism an advantage in the environment it is in, as compared to organisms who do not have the change and will therefore perish in the harsh surroundings. An example would be when bacteria develop the ability of an efflux pump, so when an antibiotic comes to finish them off, the organism simply pumps the antibiotic out of itself! The organism with the advantage will survive, whilst the ones without will be susceptible to the antibiotic and will die, thus the organism with the advantage will selectively outgrow those without!some bacteria also develop the ability to produce a new enzyme, eg. Beta Lactamase in penicillin resistant micro-organisms, which is capable of inactivating Beta Lactam in the structure of penicillin, thus rendering it ineffective!

Answer 2

Actually, you dream about 3-5 different dreams each night but you don't always remember them. EVERYONE dreams, so there really isn't anything you can do to make yourself dream more or less often. All you can do is try as soon as you wake up to remember any dreams you've had. The reason you're not remembering your dreams is because after 5 minutes of waking up, you will forget any dreams you had unless you try to remember or if the dream was really distinct. Also, if you want to increase your chances of having a distinct dream or nightmare (can't imagine why!) then you could eat something spicy before going to sleep. That's all you can do though, because you ARE dreaming!!! Don't forget what I said! I actually KNOW what I'm talking about! :) Good luck.

Answer 3

With every day pass, our country is getting into more and more trouble. The inflation, unemployment and falling value of dollar are the main concern for our Government but authorities are just sleeping, they don’t want to face the fact. Media is also involve in it, they are force to stop showing the real economic situation to the people. I start getting more concern about my future as well as my family after watching the response of our Government for the people that affected by hurricane Katrina.

According to recent studies made by World Bank, the coming crisis will be far worse than initially predicted. So if you're already preparing for the crisis (or haven't started yet) make sure you watch this video at http://www.familysurvival.tv and discover the 4 BIG issues you'll have to deal with when the crisis hits, and how to solve them fast (before the disaster strikes your town!) without spending $1,000s on overrated items and useless survival books.

Answer 4

It's difficult because any population is always adapting to the past. It cannot predict the future--it can only 'guess' as to what the trend is going to be....

Answer 5

You and your buddies learned how to dress, how to talk, how to act, what colognes to wear. You learned "the look", didn't you? Do you think your chances of survival and reproduction among your friends has increased? You haven't been kicked out as a "nerd" with no hopes of getting a date, have you?

Okay, okay....my roomates girlfriend says to give you a serious example, so here goes:

*Ahem*, giraffes have long necks because the offspring with the longer necks were able to reach the leaves higher on the tree. They thus had more food, and were more attractive to the female giraffes, who were happy to reproduce with them and pass on the "long neck" trait.

Answer 6

A biological adaptation is an anatomical structure, physiological process or behavioral trait of an organism that has evolved over a period of time by the process of natural selection such that it increases the expected long-term reproductive success of the organism. The term adaptation is also sometimes used as a synonym for natural selection, but most biologists discourage this usage.

Adaptation can be viewed as taking place over geological time, or within the lifetime of one individual or a group.

Organisms that are adapted to their environment are able to:

get air, water, food and nutrients
cope with physical conditions such as temperature, light and heat
defend themselves from their natural enemies
reproduce
respond to changes around them
Adaptations are the way living organisms cope with environmental stresses and pressures. One common form of physical Adaptation involves acclimatization. Acclimatization allows the organism to be able to exist in its new environment. Adaptation can be structural or behavioural. Structural adaptations are special body parts of an organism that help it to survive in its natural habitat, for example, its skin color, shape and body covering. Behavioural adaptations are special ways a particular organism behaves to survive in its natural habitat. Physical adaptations are systems present in an organism that allow it to perform certain biochemistry reactions, for example, making venom, secreting slime, being able to keep a constant body temperature.

Organisms that are not suitably adapted to their environment will either have to move out of the habitat or die out. The term die out in the context of adaptation simply means a species' death rate excedes its' birth rate for a long enough period for the species to disappear.

It is possible for an adaptation to be poorly selected or become less appropriate or even become on balance more of a dysfunction than a positive adaptation over time; this is known as maladaptation and can apply to both humans and animals in such fields as biology, psychology (where it applies to behaviors and other learned survival mechanisms) and other fields.

There is a great difference between adaptation and acclimation. Adaptation occurs over many generations; it is generally a slow process caused by natural selection. Acclimation occurs generally in a single lifetime and copes with issues that are less threatening. For example, if a human was to move to a higher altitude, respiration and physical exertion would become a problem, but after spending a duration of time in high altitude conditions one will soon acclimate to the pressure and function and no longer notice the change.

Let us examine a few adaptations in Shark -

Sharks have been around for hundreds of millions of years, during this time they've been able to evolve and fine tune their design to fit into the wide range of habitats that they live in.
Most people's idea of a shark looks like a great white shark like Crunch .He can grow up to 24ft long, he's designed by nature to be fast and sleek in order to be able to ambush seals, dolphins and fast moving Tuna.
So what adaptations does Crunch as a Great White shark have ?
- Physical
Crunch lives in the Cold waters off California, he has several physical adaptations that help him live there. Most people think of California as being a place of warm sunny beaches, mostly they're right , however even in South California where its sunny the water is cold as the sea water there is fed by a current from Canada and Alaska. Sharks like all fish, reptiles and amphibians are cold blooded, this means their body temperature is at the same temperature as their surroundings, mammals and birds are warm blooded, this means they can keep their body temperature warmer or cooler than the surroundings so they don't overheat or cool too much. Keeping the blood and the muscles warm means that they can use their muscles more effectively.
Muscles work more effectively at a warmer temperature and can work longer before getting tired. So what does this have to do with crunch ? Lots!
Great Whites and their Cousins the Mako sharks have evolved a way to keep their blood warmer than the surrounding water. Animals that can do this are called "Pokoliotherms". The way they keep their blood warmer is that blood vessels going away from the heart carrying blood that is warmer passes right next to the blood vessels coming back to the heart with cooler blood. The heat in the warm blood passes to the cool blood conserving heat inside the body. This allows great whites and makos to swim faster and for longer than their cousins that can't do this.
Another physical adaptation is the great white's shape, see how he's streamlined like a torpedo, his tail fin is the same on the top and on the bottom, he's designed to be sleek and streamlined to swim effortlessly in open water. Other sharks we'll see are designed more for living on the bottom.
Again another physical adaptation is the colour of Great White's and most open water sharks, have you noticed how they are dark on top and light underneath ? Well fighter planes are painted a similar way (except for some of the more modern fighters that fly higher, they're grey all over to be harder to see).
- Behavioural
Great Whites have evolved (or been designed by a higher being) to hunt fast moving marine mammals and big fish such as :
- Tuna
- Seals
- Sea Lions
- Dolphins
All of these guys can move REALLY fast, if the shark is seen before he can pounce, chances are the intended victim can escape by outmanouvering the shark.
In some parts of the world such as the mediterranean Great Whites must hunt Dolphins and Tuna in open water, to do this they sneak up from below using their colour scheme to get close without being seen, once close enough underneath they can pounce quickly and catch their prey.
However in California, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa Great Whites live around Seal , Sea Lion and Penguin (South Africa) colonies. In two of these places South Africa and California and only in special parts of certain islands Great Whites have been observed jumping fully out of the water.
Why only in these special places ? Well its thought that the shape of the bottom is just right, there is a deep area close to the seal colony where the sharks can come in deeper over a rocky bottom (where their colour hides them, unlike a sandy bottom where they would easily be seen).
Further out to sea the seals relax a little, also close inshore they relax, however as the seals / sea lions come in over that particular area they dive and move quickly, not stopping if they can help it. However sometimes they forget, or when the babies leave the beach they don't know to do this.
Anything that lingers over this area risks having a Great White pounce on it, because the water is deeper there the sharks get more of a run up, so they can move fast enough to hit their prey faster, often by the time they hit the seal they are moving so fast they jump out of the water. This is something they seem to have learned to do.
Angel shark, is adapted to be flat like a ray, he lives on the bottom and uses is wing like pectoral fins to stir up the mud and sand so it falls back on him and he can then lie camoflauged in the bottom with just his eyes sticking up. When small fish swim past his big mouth opens up , shoots forward and grabs the fish. Although Bob is a pacific angel shark and lives in California, he has a relative that can be found in UK waters, the Atlantic angel shark.
Donti is a horn shark. Also found in California. Sometimes Angel sharks will try to eat Dontis. However he has horns in front of each of the fins on his back, sometimes these help them to escape since he gets lodged in the throat of the angel shark.
Both these bottom dwelling sharks have brown colouration and spots to help them stay camoflauged on the bottom. Also see that they have more stubby shapes to lie on the bottom. Donti can actually walk along on the bottom using his fins, another adaptation, also he has a tail that is larger on top than on the bottom, better for resting on the sea bed.
http://www.sharky-jones.com/Sharkyjones/Slow/QandA/adaptability.html