CHAPTER 7 FINAL

1. The numerous metabolic processes that demand the exchange of materials and energy between
the inside of the organism and the external environment are fundamentally constrained by size. The
surface area of an organism's metabolic site increases with size, whether it be a plant or an animal.
Complex structural changes are necessary when an organism grows larger. These modifications are
adaptations that keep the surface area through which these exchanges take place in proportion to the
volume (or mass) of living cells that must be continuously supplied with vital materials from the
outside environment.

2. An animal can react to changes in its environment in one of two ways: by conforming or by
regulating. In some species, alterations in the external environment cause internal alterations in the
body that match the external circumstances. Conformers are the name for these creatures.
Conformers are unable to maintain stable internal conditions including levels of tissue oxygen or the
salinity of bodily fluids.
The ability of conformers to adapt to changing surroundings largely depends on how well their bodily
tissues can withstand the internal alterations brought on by those changes in the external
environment. While regulators manage their internal surroundings throughout a wide range of
external environmental variables using a number of biochemical, physiological, morphological, and
behavioral methods. Regulation, as opposed to conformance, may ask for significant and energy-
intensive changes in biochemistry, physiology, morphology, and behavior.

3. Homeostasis is the maintaining of a comparatively stable internal environment in a dynamic

external environment.

4. Animals' ability to maintain homeostasis is governed by both physiological and behavioral factors.
The skin has sensory systems that may detect changes in temperature as they occur. They
communicate with the brain, which automatically transmits the message to receptors that boost skin
blood flow, cause perspiration, and activate behavioral reactions.

5. All mammals have developed lungs as a means of breathing. The majority of amphibians breathe
through their skin and lungs. They make mucous to keep their skin moist since it needs to remain
damp for them to absorb oxygen. Invertebrates breathe through spiracles, which are holes in the
thorax and abdomen, rather than noses, and exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide gases through a
network of tubes called tracheae. While fishes must obtain their oxygen from the water, this process
necessitates that vast quantities of water flow through absorption surfaces in order for them to use
their mouths and gills to absorb enough oxygen into their bodies. These organs function as a pump to
keep water flowing over the gills' surfaces that absorb gases.

6. Animals and plants in arid settings struggle with water balance. Either escaping the effects of the
drought or avoiding it depends on survival. Animals from semiarid and desert environments can avoid
drought by relocating to locations with year-round water during the dry season.

7. A smaller-bodied organism has a higher surface area to volume ratio. A high surface area translates
into a high rate of heat loss. Therefore, that explains why smaller species are typically absent from
polar regions. Larger animals retain more body heat per unit of mass and hence stay warmer in cold
areas because they radiate less body heat per unit of mass than smaller animals.

8. The SA:V ratio increases with decreasing organism size, which increases the proportional heat loss
to the environment. To maintain a steady body temperature, the heat loss must be countered by
increased metabolic activity. In homeotherms, the body mass (or volume) produces heat through
respiration, whereas heat is lost to the environment across the body surface (respiration). Therefore,
compared to giant homeotherms, little ones have a higher mass-specific metabolic rate and eat more
food per unit of body weight. Smaller animals must therefore spend the majority of their time looking
for and eating food.
9. Poikilotherms' body temperatures are completely reliant on the ambient temperature, which in
turn regulates their metabolic rates. They search out suitable microclimates where the warmth of the
surroundings enables their body temperatures to approach ideal levels. Since poikilotherms are only
capable of functioning in environments with a moderate temperature, they thrive in locations with
more temperate climates.

10. It is normal to find larger creatures in polar zones and smaller ones in tropical areas. Because of
their larger surface area, smaller animals tend to lose more heat. Therefore, larger animals are better
at retaining heat.

11. Morning temperatures are generally cooler, which slows the snake's metabolism. The snake's
metabolism may not be high enough for it to be active at these temperatures, which are possibly
below its functional temperature range.

12. Insulation, such fur, fat, or feathers; shivering, a type of uncontrollable muscle movement that
raises body temperature; and evaporative systems, including panting and sweating.

13. Terrestrial and amphibious poikilotherms mostly rely on behavioral thermoregulation to keep
body temperature in the "preferred" or ideal range. To increase or decrease heat conduction between
themselves and the rocks or soil they are resting on, lizards, for instance, will raise and lower their
bodies and alter the contour of their bodies. Additionally, they bury themselves in the ground or seek
for sunlight or shade to regulate their body temperatures.

14. Supercooling occurs when the body has specific solutes that significantly lower the freezing point
of biological fluids. This translates to the fact that these creatures can drastically reduce their
metabolic rates while yet avoiding freezing to death.

15. The right temperature is essential for insect flight. Most are unable to fly if their body muscles are
either below 30 degrees Celsius or above 44 degrees Celsius. Due to this constraint, an insect must
warm up before taking off and expend extra heat while in flight. Some insects, like butterflies and
dragonflies, begin to warm up by turning toward the sun and expanding their wings. Most warm up by
shaking their thoracic flying muscles. To elevate thoracic temperatures above surrounding
temperatures, moths and butterflies shake their wings. Without using their wings, bumblebees pump
their abdomens. When not in flight, they cool to ambient temperatures and do not maintain any
physiological set point.

16. Hibernation is defined by the cessation of activity and controlled hypothermia, whereas torpor
entails physiological changes specifically connected to body temperature, metabolism, and water
balance (reduction of body temperature).

17. The aforementioned fishes will use supercooling by boosting the solute content of their bodily
fluids, particularly glycerol. Glycerol increases the amount of supercooling by preventing freezing
damage. When the body temperature drops below the freezing point without actually freezing, body
fluids supercool. The degree of supercooling that can occur depends on the availability of specific
solutes in the body that work to lower the freezing point of water.