Essential Knowledge 3.E.1

Individuals can act on information and communicate it to others.

Organisms exchange information with each other in response to internal changes and external cues, which can change behavior. Examples include:

• Fight or flight response
• Predator warnings
• Protection of young
• Plant-plant interactions due to herbivory
• Avoidance responses

Communication occurs through various mechanisms. Living systems have a variety of signal behaviors or cues that produce changes in

the behavior of other organisms and can result in differential reproductive success. Examples include:

• Herbivory responses
• Territorial marking in mammals
• Coloration in flowers

Animals use visual, audible, tactile, electrical and chemical signals to indicate dominance, find food, establish territory and ensure reproductive success. Examples include:

• Bee dances
• Birds songs
• Territorial marking in mammals
• Pack behavior in animals
• Herd, flock, and schooling behavior in animals
• Predator warning
• Colony and swarming behavior in insects
• Coloration

Responses to information and communication of information are vital to natural selection and evolution. Natural selection favors innate and learned behaviors that increase survival and reproductive fitness. Examples include:

• Parent and offspring interactions
• Migration patterns
• Courtship and mating behaviors
• Foraging in bees and other animals
• Avoidance behavior to electric fences, poisons, or traps

Cooperative behavior tends to increase the fitness of the individual and the survival of the population. Examples include:

• Pack behavior in animals
• Herd, flock and schooling behavior in animals
• Predator warning
• Colony and swarming behavior in insects

NOTE: The details of the various communications and community behavioral systems are beyond the scope of the course and the AP Exam.

Students should be able to:

LO 3.40 Analyze data that indicate how organisms exchange information in response to internal changes and external cues, and which can change behavior.

LO 3.41 Create a representation that describes how organisms exchange information in response to internal changes and external cues, and which can result in changes in behavior.

LO 3.42 Describe how organisms exchange information in response to internal changes or environmental cues.