Biology 2483A Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Body Fluid, Selaginella Lepidophylla, Boundary Layer Thickness

• School: Western University
• Department: Biology
• Course: Biology 2483A
• Professor: Hugh Henry

Document Summary

Lecture 3: coping with environmental variation (temperature and water) 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 tolerance limits and impact survival. Energy supply can influence an organism"s ability to tolerate environmental extremes. The actual geographic distribution of a species is also related to other factors, such as disturbance and competition. Due to environmental factors and disturbance and competition this graph shows the actual distribution but potential distribution shows the max or potential range that the species can reach in that environment if factors like competition where not present. Because plants don"t move, they are good indicators of the physical environment. Example: aspen distribution can be predicted based on climate. Physiological ecology- study of interactions between organisms and the physical environments that influence their survival and persistence. Physiological processes have optimal conditions for functioning. Deviations from the optimum reduce the rate of the process.