Chapter 1: Function on the Ecological Stage Flashcards
Animal Physiology
The study of animal function
Mechanism
The components of actual, living animals and the interactions among those components that enable the animals to preform as they do
Natural Selection
The increase in frequency of genes that produce phenotypes that raise the likelihood that animals with survive and reproduce
Adaptation
A genetically controlled trait that, through the process of natural selection, has come to be present at high frequency in a population because it confers a greater probability of survival and successful reproduction in the prevailing environment than available alternative state
Adaptive Significance
A trait evolved by natural selection
Mechanistic Physiology
The study of mechanism
Evolutionary Physiology
The study of evolutionary physiology
Comparative Physiology
The synthetic study of the function of all animals
Environmental Physiology (Physiological Ecology)
The study of how animals respond physiologically to environmental conditions and challenges
Integrative Physiology
The study of synthesis across levels of biological organization, such as the relations between molecular and anatomical features of organs
Internal Environment
Set of conditions, such as temperature, pH, and sodium concentration, experienced by cells within an animal’s body
External Environment
Set of conditions outside the body
Conformity
Equal internal and external conditions
Regulation
Maintains internal constancy in the face of external variability
Controlled Variable
The property that is being kept constant or relatively constant by the system’s activitives
Set Point
The level at which the controlled variable is to be kept
Feedback
Occurs when the system uses information on the controlled variable itself to govern its action
Negative Feedback
The system responds to changes in the controlled variable by bringing the variable back towards its set point
Positive Feedback
A control system reinforced deviation of a controlled variable from its set point
Homeostasis
Internal constancy and the physiological regulatory systems that automatically make adjustments to maintain it
Acute Responses
Responses that are exhibited during the first minutes or hours after an environmental change
Chronic Responses
Expresses following prolonged exposures to new environmental conditions
Evolutionary Responses
Responses to environmental changes involving changes of genotypes
Acclimation
A chronic response to a changed environment
Acclimatization
A chronic response of individuals to a changed environment when the new and old environments are different natural environments that can differ in numerous ways
Phenotypic Plasticity
The ability of an individual animal (a single genotype) to express two or more genetically controlled phenotypes
Norm of Reaction
In phenotypic plasticity, the specific relations between environments and phenotypes
Development
The progression of life stages from conception to senescence in an individual
Biological Clocks
Mechanism that give organisms an internal capability to keep track of the passages of time
Scaling
The study of relations between physiological (or morphological) features and body size within sets of physiologically related species
Microenvironment
Places within an environment that potentially differ from the environment at large in their physical or chemical conditions
Microclimate
The set of climatic conditions (temperature, humidity, wind speed) prevailing in a subpart of a system
Evolution
A change of gene frequencies over time in a population of organisms
Adaptation
A trait becomes present at high frequency in a population because it confers a greater probability of survival and successful reproduction in the prevailing environment than available alternative traits
Nonadaptive Evolution
An allele that provides a lower probability of survival and reproduction than a available alternative comes to be the predominant allele in the population
Genetic Drift
Processes in which chance assumes a preeminent role in altering gene frequencies
Pleiotropy
The control by an allele of a single gene of two or more distinct and seemingly unrelated traits
Comparative Method
Seeks to identify adaptive traits by comparing how a particular function is carried out by related and unrelated species in similar and dissimilar environment
Knockout Animal
An approach to employ genetically engineering methods to silences genes
RNA interference (RNAi)
A cellular process that destroys specific mRNA molecules when specific double-stranded RNA molecules are introduced into cells
Genetic Clines
A progressive change in allele frequencies or gene-controlled phenotype frequencies along an environmental gradient
