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Habitats: diverse living areas

Habitats: diverse living areas

Adaptability of plants and animals to living conditions

Slovenia is a small country, but the diversity of its territory is great. We have mountains, plains, sea, forests, meadows, caves... Sun, wind, rainfall, rocks, proximity to rivers and lakes, and many other factors determine the characteristics of an area. They also influence the life of plants and animals that have adapted to these conditions throughout history.

Just by looking at a plant, you can predict what the conditions are like for growth and development - even if it might be your first time there. What are plants like by the sea? What are those in the forest like? That's why experts have come up with names for these specific features of the environment and the living conditions they offer. They are called HABITATS or living areas.

The diversity of the landscape provides a variety of habitats to which certain species of animals and plants have adapted.

 

 

To survive, each animal needs a sufficient amount of food, water and space. So do plants. For example, the brown trout needs a cold, clean and fast river, the wolf lives in dense mountain forests, the Alpine ibex needs rocks, the Eurasian hoopoe needs grassland forest and the heron needs wetlands.

Clear and fast streams, mountain forests, meadows, wetlands... these are all habitats.

Habitats are part of the ecosystem. The relationships between living and non-living nature are intertwined all the time. Populations of a species live together in a habitat, and populations of different species of animals and plants coexist. There are eight basic ecosystems in Slovenia:

FOREST

MOUNTAINS

SEA

INLAND WATERS

WETLANDS

UNDERGROUND

CITIES

CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

Different ecosystems are home to different species of animals and plants. Therefore, species that live in the sea will not be found in the highlands, and vice versa.