1. Many plants survive winter as seeds, as underground storage organs or with their leaves protected as buds.
    
2. Seeds are produced in fruits and the fruit helps to disperse the seeds from the parent plant.
    
3. Seeds in the soil may germinate immediately or they may lie dormant in the soil seed bank for many years.
    
4. Dormant seeds will germinate if the soil is disturbed by fire or cultivation.
    
5. The seeds need certain conditions for germination to occur. These conditions generally include warmth and water.
    
6. Seeds can sense it is the right season to germinate by detecting changes in temperature or changes in the length of the day.
    
7. Underground storage organs are also formed when the plant senses winter approaching. The air temperature cools and the days get shorter.
    
8. Deciduous trees lose their leaves in winter. The next year's leaves are protected inside buds. The buds will only open if they sense that winter has passed and spring is approaching.
    
9. Trees may help to protect themselves in winter by adding sugar to their sap. This acts as an antifreeze.

Seeds and Spores

When the Climate is Too Cold for Animals to Remain Active

1. In winter, "cold-blooded" animals may survive in a resting state such as an egg or a pupa or they may hide themselves from the cold and become torpid.
    
2. "Warm-blooded" animals survive winter by remaining active if there is enough food and shelter, by migrating to a warmer climate or by hibernating to save energy.
    
3. Hibernating mammals and birds have a low body temperature, a slower heart beat and a slower breathing rate.
    
4. Hibernating mammals and birds can control their body temperature. If their temperatures fall towards freezing point they can warm themselves up. "Cold-blooded" animals cannot do this.

Animal Life Cycles and Dispersal

1. Insects and other invertebrates go through a life cycle where their bodies change dramatically in shape as well as size. This is called metamorphosis.
    
2. The immature stages of insects are called larvae or nymphs. They feed and grow rapidly.
    
3. The adult stages are mature; they can reproduce. They usually have wings so that they can disperse their eggs over a large area.
    
4. The insect body is covered by an exoskeleton which is hard and will not permit the insect to grow bigger. The larva or nymph has to periodically moult its exoskeleton and a grow a new one which is bigger.
    
5. The immature insects develop into adults in two ways: by complete metamorphosis or by incomplete metamorphosis.
    
6. Insects which show complete metamorphosis have immature stages called larvae. The larva passes through a resting stage called a pupa to change into an adult.
    
7. Insects which show incomplete metamorphosis have immature stages called nymphs. The nymphs look like small adults without wings. As the nymphs grow they come to look more and more like the adult stage. In these insects there is no pupa.

Asexual Reproduction

1. Sexual reproduction requires sex cells (sperms and eggs produced by males and females) but asexual reproduction requires no sex cells at all.
    
2. Asexual reproduction is common amongst plants, single-celled organisms and simple animals.
    
3. Asexual reproduction has the advantage of producing large numbers of offspring very quickly.
    
4. A group of offspring produced by asexual reproduction from a single parent is called a clone.
    
5. Asexual reproduction in a single-celled organism involves simply dividing into two or the budding of a small piece of the mother cell.
    
6. Simple animals, such as the Hydra, may also bud off small pieces which have grown from their bodies.
    
7. Green plants are quite sophisticated in their methods of asexual reproduction. Offspring may be produced by runners, bulbs, rhizomes or tubers.
    
8. Gardeners have used this ability of plants to reproduce asexually. They take cuttings from plants and encourage them to grow roots and leaves. In this way large numbers of the same plant can be obtained very quickly from one parent plant.
    
9. Scientists have gone one step further; they cultivate very small pieces of plants in test tubes. This is called in vitro culture and it can produce thousands of identical offspring from one plant, all grown under carefully controlled conditions.

Sexual or Asexual Reproduction?

1. Asexual reproduction is quite rapid and requires only one parent.
    
2. The offspring produced by asexual reproduction, from the same parent, are all identical to one another and they are identical to the parent.
    
3. Sexual reproduction requires sex cells produced by two parents (a male and a female). Sexual reproduction is more complex and slower than asexual reproduction.
    
4. Offspring produced by sexual reproduction look like their parents but they are not identical (unless they are identical twins); they show variation.
    
5. Farmers breed together different varieties of animals or plants to produce offspring which show the best characteristics of both parents.
    
6. Amongst populations of wild animals and plants, species show variation as a result of sexual reproduction. This variation allows them to adapt to new environments.
    
7. If a species of organism which shows no variation cannot adapt it may become extinct.