ACTIVITY – SURVIVOR !
Your activity kit contains information cards for the five plant species listed below.
Your instructor will give you three clues that are conditions in a particular natural environment –
one at a time.
As the instructor reads each individual environmental condition, “vote out” (“X” out) below the
name(s) of any plant(s) that does not have adaptations for that condition – that will not survive
that environmental condition.
CLIMATE DETECTIVES (L.S.)
Name______________________
Date______________
1. Name several ways that pollen can be spread from one plant to another.
After repeating this for all three characteristics, you will determine which of the five plant species
has the necessary adaptations to be the SOLE SURVIVOR !
Astilbe
2. What are several adaptations for seed dispersal?
Dudleya
3. What are some adaptations that protect plants from herbivores and competition
from other plants.
Ferocactus
Hydrangea
4. In the photos on the slide, what are some plant adaptations for the desert
environment and how do they work?
Rhipsalis
5. Name some plant adaptations for the extreme conditions of the tundra
environment.
Copyright 2011
GO TO THE SURVIVOR ! ACTIVITY ON THE LAST
PAGE
4. Using the Climate Characteristics in the Pollen-Climate Key for the species you identified in
ACTIVITY – POLLEN PUZZLE
your pollen analysis, for each sediment layer determine the biome at the time the layer was
formed. Record this information in the table below (ybp = years before present).
1. Using the instructions given in class, sort the foam “pollen grains” in your sediment
sample(s) by color.
2. Each color of foam dots represents a different species of plant. Match the colors of the
dots to the colors on the Pollen-Climate Key, to determine the plant species present in
each sediment layer.
3. In the table below, for each sediment layer (1, 2, 3) find the box for each species you
identify in that layer, and count & record the number of “pollen grains” for each
species.
BIOMES vs. SEDIMENT AGE
BLACK HAWK LAKE, COLORADO ROCKY MOUNTAINS
Sediment
Layer
Age
1
150-450 ybp
2
450-650 ybp
3
650-1500 ybp
Biome/Climate Conditions
POLLEN ANALYSIS – BLACK HAWK LAKE, COLORADO ROCKY MOUNTAINS
Plant
Species
Sediment Layer
1
2
3
5. Based on the biomes recorded in the table above, what was the overall pattern of climate
change from 1500 to 150 years before the present?
alpine sage
bristlecone
pine
6. Can you speculate about what might have caused this climate trend? What do you think
might have happened? (You may know the answer to this from what you learned in a
world history or European history class!)
Douglas fir
Engelmann
spruce
limber pine
meadow
grasses &
wildflowers
7. From this single bog sediment core can you make conclusions about global climate trends
during 1500-150 ybp? If not, what additional evidence should you investigate?
ponderosa
pine
sedges &
mosses
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