Biology 2483A Chapter 4: 3 - Coping, Temperature and Water
15 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
Two large defining stresses defining the conditions that organisms experience: temperature & The physical environment influences an organism"s ecological success in two ways: availability of energy and resources impacts growth and reproduction, extreme conditions can exceed physiological tolerance limits and impact survival (ie. too cold/ dry to live). These are not completely separate. (cid:120) energy supply can influence ability to tolerate environmental extremes: if you"re able to obtain more resources (increase energy supply), this can improve the organisms ability to tolerate the environmental extremes. (cid:131) ex. Cold winter = add more fat = help stay warm: opposite effect is that extremes can limit the resources available. The actual geographic distribution of a species is also related to other factors, such as disturbance (ie. plants in area are frequent with fires) and competition (with other animals or predators). Because plants don"t move, they are good indicators of the physical environment.
