BIOL 2060 Lecture Notes - Atriplex, Tonicity, Osmotic Concentration

98 views21 pages

Document Summary

Regulators: organisms that maintain constant internal environments despite varying environmental conditions. Conformers: organisms that allow their internal conditions to vary in parallel with the. Homeostasis: maintenance of nearly constant internal environments in the midst of a environmental conditions. varying external environment. Negative feedback: homeostatic control that returns internal conditions back to the desired or normal state if they deviate because of external or internal influences. Positive feedback : control in a system that reinforces a process in the same direction, deviating farther away from the normal state. Regulators are organisms that maintain homeostasis that is, that have constant internal environments despite varying environmental conditions, while conformers are organisms that allow their internal conditions to vary according to the environmental conditions. There is in fact a continuum between regulators and conformers. One benefit is that when environmental conditions vary between wide extremes, regulators can maintain their normal level of activity, food acquisition, and avoidance of predators.