Chapter 4

Question 1

An organism’s adjustment of its physiology, morphology, or behavior to lessen the effect of an environmental change and minimize the associated stress.

Answer 1

acclimatization

Question 2

A physiological, morphological, or behavioral trait with an underlying genetic basis that enhances the survival and reproduction of its bearers in their environment.

Answer 2

adaptation

Question 3

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.

Answer 3

avoidance

Question 4

A zone close to a surface where a flow of fluid, usually air, encounters resistance and becomes turbulent.

Answer 4

boundary layer

Question 5

A state in which little or no metabolic activity occurs.

Answer 5

dormancy

Question 6

A population with adaptations to unique local environmental conditions.

Answer 6

ecotype

Question 7

An animal that regulates its body temperature primarily through energy exchange with its external environment.

Answer 7

ectotherm

Question 8

An animal that regulates its body temperature primarily through internal metabolic heat generation.

Answer 8

endotherm

Question 9

The energy associated with gravity.

Answer 9

gravitational potential

Question 10

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.

Answer 10

hibernation

Question 11

The environmental temperature at which the heat loss of an endotherm triggers an increase in metabolic heat generation.

Answer 11

lower critical temperature

Question 12

The energy associated with attractive forces on the surfaces of large molecules inside cells or on the surfaces of soil particles.

Answer 12

matric potential

Question 13

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.

Answer 13

osmotic adjustment

Question 14

The energy associated with dissolved solutes.

Answer 14

osmotic potential

Question 15

The study of the interactions between organisms and the physical environment that influence their survival and persistence.

Answer 15

physiological ecology

Question 16

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.

Answer 16

pressure potential

Question 17

The presence of hairs on the surface of an organism.

Answer 17

pubescence

Question 18

(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.

Answer 18

resistance

Question 19

A pore in plant tissues, usually leaves, surrounded by specialized guard cells that control its opening and closing.

Answer 19

stomate

Question 20

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.

Answer 20

stress

Question 21

The range of environmental temperatures over which endotherms maintain a constant basal metabolic rate.

Answer 21

thermoneutral zone

Question 22

The ability to survive stressful environmental conditions.

Answer 22

tolerance

Question 23

A state of dormancy in which endotherms drop their lower critical temperature and associated metabolic rate.

Answer 23

torpor

Question 24

Pressure that develops in a plant cell when water moves into it, following a gradient in water potential.

Answer 24

turgor pressure

Question 25

The overall energy status of water in a system; the sum of osmotic potential, gravitational potential, turgor pressure, and matric potential.

Answer 25

water potential