BIOLOGY 1B Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Thrasher, Prunus Pensylvanica, Small Ground Finch
Document Summary
Conditions include all of the environmental factors that affect organisms, but these factors are not used by organisms. Such conditions include, for example, ambient temperature, water salinity, and wind speed. An organism might have a range of tolerances for these conditions, but organisms do not consume them. Resources, on the other hand, are physical, chemical, or biological materials that are actually consumed by organisms. Such resources are often finite in abundance and in limited supply. The principle of allocation is a convenient such orienting generalization. In order to survive, an organism requires some minimum amount of energy for cellular respiration and metabolic maintenance. After basic survival needs are met, an organism can dedicate remaining resources to growth, defense against enemies, and reproduction. During a time interval when resources are abundant after the basic metabolic needs of the organism are met any extra available resources can be dedicated to growth, defense, and/or reproduction.
