Chapter 1: Function on the Ecological Stage

Question 1

Animal Physiology

Answer 1

The study of animal function

Question 2

Mechanism

Answer 2

The components of actual, living animals and the interactions among those components that enable the animals to preform as they do

Question 3

Natural Selection

Answer 3

The increase in frequency of genes that produce phenotypes that raise the likelihood that animals with survive and reproduce

Question 4

Adaptation

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Adaptive Significance

Answer 5

A trait evolved by natural selection

Question 6

Mechanistic Physiology

Answer 6

The study of mechanism

Question 7

Evolutionary Physiology

Answer 7

The study of evolutionary physiology

Question 8

Comparative Physiology

Answer 8

The synthetic study of the function of all animals

Question 9

Environmental Physiology (Physiological Ecology)

Answer 9

The study of how animals respond physiologically to environmental conditions and challenges

Question 10

Integrative Physiology

Answer 10

The study of synthesis across levels of biological organization, such as the relations between molecular and anatomical features of organs

Question 11

Internal Environment

Answer 11

Set of conditions, such as temperature, pH, and sodium concentration, experienced by cells within an animal’s body

Question 12

External Environment

Answer 12

Set of conditions outside the body

Question 13

Conformity

Answer 13

Equal internal and external conditions

Question 14

Regulation

Answer 14

Maintains internal constancy in the face of external variability

Question 15

Controlled Variable

Answer 15

The property that is being kept constant or relatively constant by the system’s activitives

Question 16

Set Point

Answer 16

The level at which the controlled variable is to be kept

Question 17

Feedback

Answer 17

Occurs when the system uses information on the controlled variable itself to govern its action

Question 18

Negative Feedback

Answer 18

The system responds to changes in the controlled variable by bringing the variable back towards its set point

Question 19

Positive Feedback

Answer 19

A control system reinforced deviation of a controlled variable from its set point

Question 20

Homeostasis

Answer 20

Internal constancy and the physiological regulatory systems that automatically make adjustments to maintain it

Question 21

Acute Responses

Answer 21

Responses that are exhibited during the first minutes or hours after an environmental change

Question 22

Chronic Responses

Answer 22

Expresses following prolonged exposures to new environmental conditions

Question 23

Evolutionary Responses

Answer 23

Responses to environmental changes involving changes of genotypes

Question 24

Acclimation

Answer 24

A chronic response to a changed environment

Question 25

Acclimatization

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Phenotypic Plasticity

Answer 26

The ability of an individual animal (a single genotype) to express two or more genetically controlled phenotypes

Question 27

Norm of Reaction

Answer 27

In phenotypic plasticity, the specific relations between environments and phenotypes

Question 28

Development

Answer 28

The progression of life stages from conception to senescence in an individual

Question 29

Biological Clocks

Answer 29

Mechanism that give organisms an internal capability to keep track of the passages of time

Question 30

Scaling

Answer 30

The study of relations between physiological (or morphological) features and body size within sets of physiologically related species

Question 31

Microenvironment

Answer 31

Places within an environment that potentially differ from the environment at large in their physical or chemical conditions

Question 32

Microclimate

Answer 32

The set of climatic conditions (temperature, humidity, wind speed) prevailing in a subpart of a system

Question 33

Evolution

Answer 33

A change of gene frequencies over time in a population of organisms

Question 34

Adaptation

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Nonadaptive Evolution

Answer 35

An allele that provides a lower probability of survival and reproduction than a available alternative comes to be the predominant allele in the population

Question 36

Genetic Drift

Answer 36

Processes in which chance assumes a preeminent role in altering gene frequencies

Question 37

Pleiotropy

Answer 37

The control by an allele of a single gene of two or more distinct and seemingly unrelated traits

Question 38

Comparative Method

Answer 38

Seeks to identify adaptive traits by comparing how a particular function is carried out by related and unrelated species in similar and dissimilar environment

Question 39

Knockout Animal

Answer 39

An approach to employ genetically engineering methods to silences genes

Question 40

RNA interference (RNAi)

Answer 40

A cellular process that destroys specific mRNA molecules when specific double-stranded RNA molecules are introduced into cells

Question 41

Genetic Clines

Answer 41

A progressive change in allele frequencies or gene-controlled phenotype frequencies along an environmental gradient