Lesson Note
Subject: Biology
Topic: Tolerance
Lesson Objective: by the end of the lesson, the learners should be able to:
- Define the terms Tolerance, Tolerance Range, Geographic Range.
- Discuss why living things possess a range of tolerance to environmental factors;
- Mention some abiotic factors that impose tolerance on organism;
- Depict Tolerance range with a graph.
Lesson Summary/Discussion
TOLERANCE
Definition: Tolerance is the ability of living organisms to withstand or tolerate little unfavourable changes in the environment which affect their survival.
Why Living Things Possess a Range of Tolerance to Environmental Factors
Living organisms can only live in a particular habitat if they can tolerate the ranges of the abiotic factors that operate in it. Due to changes in environmental factors, some of these conditions are sometimes unfavourable. Too little or too much of certain environmental factors such as light, heat, cold, acidity and alkalinity might produce unfavourable conditions.
Tolerance Range
Definition: Tolerance range is as defined as the range between the minmum and maximum limits to which organisms can tolerate certain changes in their environment so as to survive. Organisms can only live within certain minimum and
maximum limits for each abiotic factors. Death occurs beyond this range. For example, for most animals, the minimum temperature limit is 0°C while the maximum limit is 42°C. Their tolerance range is therefore 0-42°C. Below 0°C or above 42°C the organisms may die.
Again, one factor may affect the tolerance range more than others. For example, when the oxygen level of water is low, lobsters can only tolerate temperature up to 29°C but at a higher oxygen level, they can tolerate temperature up to 32°C. Also, while some plants can withstand
long period of drought, many others cannot.
Geographic Range
Definition: Geographic range refers to the areas where a species of organism can only be found within the minimum and maximum limits of its tolerance.
This shows tolerance Range
Abiotic Factors that Impose Tolerance on Organism
Different abiotic factors like rainfall,
temperature, light intensity, availability of food, relative humidity, day length, wind, etc are often
responsible for the geographical boundaries of species of organisms. For example, the geographic range of the tropical rainforest is within the equator as a result of high rainfall and
high temperatures, whereas tropical rainforest cannot be found at the Northern and Southern poles because of low rainfall and temperature.
Lesson Evaluation/Test
- What is Tolerance?
- List the abiotic factors that impose tolerance on organism.
- Explain why organisms possess a range of tolerance to environmental factors.
- Show tolerance range with a graph
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