Introduction and Adaptation

What are the three ways adaptation can be used

Describes characters/traits seen in animals

Describes a process - natural selection acting to adjust the frequency of fitness-related genotypes

Describe short-term compensatory changes seen in animals in response to environmental variation/disturbance

What are the four Physiological responses and what there time frame is

Adaptation - slow process, over a long time, rarely reversible

Acclimitization - more rapid physiological/biochemical change after exposure to new environmental conditions

Acclimation - similar to acclimitization but usually responses to a single environmental variable in the lab

Acute response - veru short-term changes

Define homeostasis

The maintenance of a constant internal environment

3 ways to achieve homeostasis

Avoidance - get away from an environmental problem, spatial/temporal response

Conformity - change internal state so similar to external environment

Regulation - aim to maintain internal state irrespective of external environment

What animals tend to be avoiders and conformers and why

Smaller, soft-bodied animals

Large SA:vol; rapids fluxes; little in-built protection; no protective ‘layer’

what animals show some regulation and partial regulators or spatial avoiders

Animals with exoskeletons of small/medium size

What animals are likely to be regulators in all environments

Large animals

At what level with in an animal can adaptation occur

The major body compartments in an animal and the exchange routes between

Where can adaptation occur (4)

At the outside surface

Between the circulating fluid and the extracellular fluid (ECF)

Between the ECF and the cells

Within cells