Interactions with the environment

Question 1

what is the law of tolerance? and what are some examples?

Answer 1

• each species and each individual organism has a particular range of tolerance (ROT) to variations in chemical and physical factors in its environment
• ex: temperature, precipitation, moisture availability, salinity, water pressure

Question 2

what is the limiting factor principle?

Answer 2

an organism may have a wide range of tolerances for one substance or condition and a narrow range for another and thus may be limited by the substance or condition for which it has a narrow ROT

Question 3

what is acclamation?

Answer 3

the adjustment of an organism or a species to a very slowly changing environmental condition

Question 4

what are biomes? and what are they based on?

Answer 4

• they are broad categorizations of the earth’s terrestrial communities
• biomes are based on:
  1. climate
  2. vegetation characteristics