Chapter 4 Flashcards
An organism’s adjustment of its physiology, morphology, or behavior to lessen the effect of an environmental change and minimize the associated stress.
acclimatization
A physiological, morphological, or behavioral trait with an underlying genetic basis that enhances the survival and reproduction of its bearers in their environment.
adaptation
A response to stressful environmental conditions that lessens their effect through some behavior or physiological activity that minimizes an organism’s exposure to the stress.
avoidance
A zone close to a surface where a flow of fluid, usually air, encounters resistance and becomes turbulent.
boundary layer
A state in which little or no metabolic activity occurs.
dormancy
A population with adaptations to unique local environmental conditions.
ecotype
An animal that regulates its body temperature primarily through energy exchange with its external environment.
ectotherm
An animal that regulates its body temperature primarily through internal metabolic heat generation.
endotherm
The energy associated with gravity.
gravitational potential
Torpor lasting several weeks during the winter; a strategy that is possible only for animals that have access to enough food and can store enough energy reserves.
hibernation
The environmental temperature at which the heat loss of an endotherm triggers an increase in metabolic heat generation.
lower critical temperature
The energy associated with attractive forces on the surfaces of large molecules inside cells or on the surfaces of soil particles.
matric potential
An acclimatization response to changing water availability or salinity in terrestrial and aquatic environments that involves changing the solute concentration, and thus the osmotic potential, of the cell.
osmotic adjustment
The energy associated with dissolved solutes.
osmotic potential
The study of the interactions between organisms and the physical environment that influence their survival and persistence.
physiological ecology
The energy associated with the exertion of pressure; has a positive value if pressure is exerted on the system and a negative value if the system is under tension.
pressure potential
The presence of hairs on the surface of an organism.
pubescence
(1) Any force that impedes the movement of compounds such as water or gases such as carbon dioxide along an energy or concentration gradient; its inverse is conductance. (2) The ability of a community to resist change from outside influences such as disturbance.
resistance
A pore in plant tissues, usually leaves, surrounded by specialized guard cells that control its opening and closing.
stomate
An abiotic factor that results in a decrease in the rate of an important physiological process, thereby lowering the potential for an organism’s survival, growth, or reproduction; the condition caused by such a factor.
stress
The range of environmental temperatures over which endotherms maintain a constant basal metabolic rate.
thermoneutral zone
The ability to survive stressful environmental conditions.
tolerance
A state of dormancy in which endotherms drop their lower critical temperature and associated metabolic rate.
torpor
Pressure that develops in a plant cell when water moves into it, following a gradient in water potential.
turgor pressure
The overall energy status of water in a system; the sum of osmotic potential, gravitational potential, turgor pressure, and matric potential.
water potential
