Adaptations

Vocabulary:

• Adaptation: Process by which genetic changes occur, results in behavioral and morphological variations, which are used to survive. This is a process, not a change itself. The changes are hereditary. Affected by macroclimates and microclimates

• Microclimate: Climactic variation on the scale of cm to km, temperatures, aspect (angle of existence for a plant like on a hill), precipitation, humidity, and vegetation. Microclimatic variation can drive physiological response

• Acclimation: Physiological, not genetic, changes in response to temperature. This is a use of a specific adaptation, dependent on circumstance

• Morphological adaptations:

  Thermoregulation: Keeping homeostasis of a constant body temperature

• Homeostasis: Balance, not too much and not too little, though can still fluctuate, maintenance of an internal environment independent of the external one

• Hs=Hm±Hcd±Hcv±Hr-He The equation for homeostasis of thermoregulation

  • Hs: Total heat sores

  • Hm: Heat from metabolism

  • Hcd: Heat lost/gained from conduction

  • Hcv: Heat lost/gained from convection

  • Hr: Heat lost/gained from radiation

  • He: Heat lost/gained from evaporation

• Ectothermy: Results in poikilothermy, “Cold-blooded”, use external heat sources. Examples are fish, insects, reptiles, and amphibians. The adaptation is altering their movement patterns to maximize their homeostasis and thermoregulation

• Endothermy: Results in homeothermy, “warm-blooded”, use internal cources to generate heat like burning sugars and fat, creating a metabolic rate that consumes O2 to make heat, requires more energy. Sometimes, they undergo hibernation to super slow down their metabolism when there won’t be enough food to make enough energy. Other times, they store heat in the form of water or fat

• Metabolic rate: Measures how much O2 is used, typically lower in larger organisms because larger organisms tend to be more efficient

• Basal metabolic rate: Metabolic rate/ organism size

• Cryoprotection: Common among ectotherms, an adaptation resulting from extracellular freezing. Water is pooled to surround internal organs at the signal of touching ice, and as the temperature lowers it freezes itself and looses a heartbeat. It melts in the spring and regains a heart beat.

• Water conservation: The balance of water levels, controlled by drinking/eating and metabolic inputs

As an environment changes, adaptations that may have been good before might be less good, as the biosphere shifts, the best adaptations for it shift as well

Size can dictate what adaptations are needed to survive in an environment