Summary of key terms Flashcards
Define resource partitioning
Species finding further niches within the same resource via adaptation
What is a physiological response curve?
Describes a species’ potential to survive within their specific environmental tolerances. For example: Daphnia in very cold water will be at their lower critical limit. Barely functioning. In perfectly warm water they’d be at their performance optima, reproducing and thriving. As the water temperature rises they would reach the other end of the spectrum, their upper critical limit. The curve therefore follows: - Lower critical limit - Performance Optima - Higher critical limit
Differentiate between fundamental and realised niche
Fundemental:
The entire set of circumstances that an organism can THEORETICALLY reproduce within. Realised: the actual real world outcome.
The laws of physics apply to biological processes like any other, so just as a recap, what are the first two laws of thermodynamics?
- Energy and matter cannot be created or destroyed. Waste, heat and mass of an organism is in constant change and flux taking input and making output which moves around the environment and food chains. Repurposed and restructured but never destroyed or created. 2. Systems tend toward increasing entropy. An organism is in a constant struggle to remain whole via utilisation of resources. No energetic transfer is 100% efficient. Loss of energy is a key feature of Biology.
Differentiate between a genome and an epigenome
Genome is the entire nucleotide code of an organism.
The epigenome, or “above” genome, are processes that modify, mark and tell the genome how it is expressed.
What is meant by TNZ?
Thermal Neutral Zone. The state in which an organism maintains their internal temperature, where it isn’t exerting energy beyond its BMR.
Define the aerobic scope of an organism
The range between the BMR and MMR. The resting state and the maximum metabolic rate.
What is Boyles Law?
Volume decrease = pressure increase. Pressure decrease = volume increase. Relates to biology in organs like lungs. Or the homeostasis of cells, where a specific internal pressure is maintained by the cell wall.
What is Ficks Law?
Describes diffusion. Surface area x concentration difference ÷ thickness of membrane.
What is a Statocyst?
An organ that allows organisms to know which way is up and which way is down. A statolith (mineral mass) sits inside a hollow organ that moves freely with gravity Setae hairs sense these movements and sends signals to the brain Common in aquatic inverts
Define Torpor
A state of physical or mental inactivity. Not to be confused with hibernation.
