Marine Organism Adaptations

Marine organisms must have special characteristics in order to survive living in marine environments. These special characteristics, or adaptations, help these organisms with everyday activities. There are adaptations for temperature and pressure changes. Other adaptations include camouflage, the ability to extract oxygen from the surrounding watery environment, and the ability to control buoyancy. There are even adaptations for deep sea organisms such as the ability to “glow in the dark”, also called bioluminescence.

Essential Questions

• What is an adaptation?
• How do marine mammals cope with drastic drops in surrounding temperature?
• How have marine organisms adapted to deal with the increased pressure from the water which surrounds them?
• How do marine organisms use camouflage?
• Can fish use salt water to satisfy their water requirements? If so, how?
• How can a streamlined shape be considered an adaptation?
• What is bioluminescence?