前程百利小编为大家带来关于动物选择栖息地的托福阅读材料。这个话题曾经出现在托福考试的阅读中，所以希望本文会给大家带来一些相关的背景知识以及学术词汇。在阅读时，大家要培养自己快速找到文章主要信息的能力。
首先看一下考试真题中对于这个话题的讨论：
一个叫Sale的科学家总结总结出了栖息地的寻找和选择是因为多种cue综合形成一个应激发应，他驳斥了固有模式的说法。举了一个鱼类实验的例子，然后还提到这种说法无法解释为何一种鸟会根据日照时间来选择栖息地，最后说这种模式目前还有待研究。
托福阅读相关背景材料：
Habitat selection
Habitat selection is the process or behavior that an animal uses to select or choose a habitat in which to live; correspondingly plants and fungi engage in habitat selection even though their inherent mobility is different from animals. To live in a habitat an animal must first have access to the habitat. Once the animal has access to the habitat it must be able to tolerate the conditions of the habitat and find the resources that it needs to survive in that habitat. Animals must be able to tolerate at least two kinds of factors in the habitat. These factors are abiotic factors and biotic factors. Abiotic factors are non-biological factors such astemperature humidity salinity and pH to name a few. Biotic factors are biological factors such ascompetition predation and disease. If both abiotic and biotic factors can be tolerated the animal must also be able to find the resources that it needs to survive. These resources include food shelter from abiotic and biotic factors and a mate. If an animal can not tolerate abiotic and biotic factors in a habitat or if it does not find food shelter or a mate in that habitat it is likely that the habitat will not be selected and the animal will leave the habitat. Habitats that are suitable for animals will often times have many animals of the same species there. This can lead to intraspecific competition. All of these things have an impact on the ecology of the animal (its distribution and abundance).
One way to determine if a habitat is suitable for an animal is to conduct a transplant experiment. In a transplant experiment animals of interest are transplanted or brought to a habitat to test that habitat for suitability. If the animal survives and reproduces in the habitat it is concluded that the habitat was unoccupied because the animal was unable to get there or because it did not have access to the habitat. If the animal does not stay survive or reproduce in the habitat it is concluded that it could be due to a lack of resources or because certain biotic and or abiotic factors are present and it can not tolerate them. A habitat that is suitable can become unsuitable if the animal’s resources and or biotic and abitoic factors change. This is what often happens when we develop areas that are currently undeveloped. This causes us to see animals that we never saw in our environments before. It also can lead to a decline in the number of these animals.
以上就是今天的托福阅读材料，大家可以在练习托福阅读材料的同时，积累一些相关词汇及句型，以便考试的时候更好地把握文意，夺得托福阅读的高分。前程百利小编预祝大家托福考试取得优异成绩!
