Metabolism in Conformers and Regulators Flashcards
What external factors affect an organism’s ability to maintain its metabolic rate?
- pH
- salinity
- temperature
How do animals and plants adapt to changes in external abiotic factors?
- avoidance
- conforming
- regulating
What is a conformer?
An organism whose internal environment is dependant on its external environment - it cannot alter their normal metabolic rate by physiological mechanisms.
How might conformers’ behaviour change to tolerate variation in their external environment?
To maintain their optimum metabolic rate they might bask in the sun to absorb heat energy or burrow in the sand to cool down.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of conformers?
Advantages:
- low metabolic costs = save energy
Disadvantages:
- restricted to a narrow ecological niche as it is less adaptable.
What is a regulator?
An organism that uses energy from their metabolism to maintain their internal environment at a steady state regardless of changes to their external environment.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of regulators?
Advantages:
- can live in a wide range of ecological niches
Disadvantages:
- high metabolic costs
What is homeostasis?
Where an organism maintains a constant internal environment irrespective of the external environment.
How is homeostasis controlled?
By negative feedback.
What is homeostasis essential for?
Thermoregulation
Does homeostasis require energy?
Yes - requires energy from the metabolism.
What is negative feedback made up of?
- receptors
- messages
- effectors
Who uses negative feedback?
Regulators
With negative feedback, when a factor increases above a certain threshold, what happens?
Mechanisms are stimulated to decrease the factor.
With negative feedback, when a factor decreases below a certain threshold, what happens?
Mechanisms are stimulated to increase levels back to their set point.
