Metabolism and Adverse Conditions Flashcards
What are the 2 strategies of surviving adverse conditions?
Surviving adverse conditions by dormancy
Avoiding adverse conditions by migration
What is dormancy?
Dormancy strategies occur when an organism reduces metabolic rate to save energy.
Heart rate, breathing rate, body temperature all decrease.
What are the types of dormancy?
Hibernation
Aestivation
Daily torpor
What is hibernation?
Animals survive winter/low temperatures by hibernating. It reduces metabolic costs (energy expenditure).
What is aestivation?
Allows survival in periods of high temperature or drought.
What is daily torpor?
This is a period of reduced of reduced activity in some animals with high metabolic rates.
What is predictive dormancy?
Occurs before onset of adverse conditions.
Genetically programmed.
What is consequential dormancy?
Occurs after onset of adverse conditions.
Typical in unpredictable environments.
What’s an advantage of consequential dormancy?
Active and utilising resources for longer.
What’s a disadvantage of consequential dormancy?
If organisms cannot enter dormancy after onset of adverse conditions, death likely.
What is migration?
Migration avoids metabolic adversity by expending energy to relocate to a more suitable environment.
It’s both innate and learned.
What are ways of tracking migration?
Individual marking (tagging animals and recapturing e.g. leg rings).
Tracking devices (GPS/satellite tracking, electronic tags, radio tracking) means they don’t need to be recaptured.
