2.5 metabolism and adverse conditions

Question 1

What are some animals reactions to non tolerable environmental conditions for normal metabolic activity?

Answer 1

• some have adapted to survive these adverse conditions

- while others avoid them

Question 2

What is dormancy?

Answer 2

metabolic rate is reduced to save energy

Question 3

When does dormancy occur?

Answer 3

when the cost of continued normal metabolic activity would be too high

Question 4

What happens during dormancy?

Answer 4

decrease in:

• metabolic rate
• heart rate
• breathing rate
• body temperature

Question 5

What are the two types of dormancy?

Answer 5

• predictive

- consequential

Question 6

What is predictive dormancy?

Answer 6

occurs before the onset of adverse conditions and is usually genetically programmed. It is typical in predictable seasonal environments.

Question 7

What is consequential dormancy?

Answer 7

occurs after the onset of adverse conditions. it is a typical response of organisms living in unpredictable environments.

Question 8

What is hibernation?

Answer 8

commonly used survival strategy by mammals in response to the threat of a metabolic energy crisis brought about by winter, low temperatures and lack of food.

Question 9

What is aestivation?

Answer 9

a form of dormancy that allows some animals to survive in periods of high temperature or drought in the summer.

• food supply issues and because conditions become too hot and dry for the animal to survive
• typically involves burying into the ground where the temperature is cool and reducing metabolic rate, similar to hibernation

Question 10

What is daily torpor?

Answer 10

a period of reduced activity in organisms with high metabolic rates

Question 11

What is migration

Answer 11

avoiding metabolic adversity (lack of food and low temperatures) by expending energy to relocate to a more suitable environment

Question 12

What can migratory behaviour be?

Answer 12

innate (inherited) and learned

Question 13

Give examples of specialised techniques used to study long distance migration

Answer 13

• satellite tracking
• leg rings
• transmitters

Question 14

What are 3 examples of dormancy?

Answer 14

• hibernation
• aestivation
• daily torpor

Question 15

describe the process of hibernation

Answer 15

• before hibernation, a mammal eats extra food and stores it as fat
• during hibernation metabolic rate is decreased resulting in a decrease in body temperature, heart rate and breathing rate
• reduces energy expenditure and allows mammals to survive the winter period

Question 16

What happenes during daily torpor and why?

Answer 16

A decrease in: 
-body temperature
-heat rate
-breathing 
-metabolic rate
increasing the organisms chance of survival

Question 17

What makes migration true migration?

Answer 17

the movement of organisms should be an annual or seasonal occurrence

Question 18

What is dormancy a part of?

Answer 18

some organisms lifecycle allowing survival during conditions when the energy costs of metabolic activity would be too high

Question 19

Why is metabolic rate decreased during dormancy?

Answer 19

to save energy

Question 20

Why does aestivation require less energy than hibernation?

Answer 20

to maintain minimum body temperature

Question 21

What is daily torpor?

Answer 21

when some animals with high metabolic rates can temporarily reduce their metabolic rate

Question 22

What is migration?

Answer 22

a regular pattern of behaviour ad involves relocating to an area with more suitable environmental conditions

Question 23

Why is migration carried out by all of the individuals?

Answer 23

it is innate

Question 24

What is innate behaviour triggered by?

Answer 24

external stimulus such as a photoperiod

Question 25

Why does a flexible learned element of migration develop?

Answer 25

as a result of experience

Question 26

state 2 ways of tracking migration

Answer 26

• satellite tracking

- leg rings