BIOL 2140 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Monarch Butterfly, Homeostasis, Torpor
Document Summary
Some temporal variation in the environment is predictable (ex. Alternation of day and night); some is unpredictable (ex. Weather: the variation in temperature and precipitation over periods of hours or days. Climate: the typical atmosphere conditions that occur through the year, measured over many years. Large-scale spatial variation may be caused by factors such as climate, land topography, and soil type; small scale variation is generated by factors such as plant structure and animal behavior. All phenotypes result from genes interacting with environments. A phenotype that is well-suited to one environment may be poorly suited to other environments. Phenotypic trade off: a situation in which a given phenotype experiences higher fitness in one environment, whereas other phenotypes experience higher fitness in other environments. Phenotypic plasticity: the ability of a single genotype to produce multiple phenotypes. Phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to achieve homeostasis. When environmental variation results in phenotypic trade-offs, natural selection will favor the evolution of phenotypic plasticity.
