metabolism and adverse conditions 5

• Dormancy

  A state of reduced metabolic activity and suspended animation adopted by some organisms to survive adverse conditions
• Dormancy

  1. Part of some organism's life cycle

  2. Allows survival during a period when costs of continued normal metabolic activity would be too high

  3. Metabolic rate can be reduced to save energy
• Types of dormancy

  • Predictive
  • Consequential
• Predictive dormancy

  Occurs before the onset of adverse conditions
• Consequential dormancy

  Occurs after the onset of adverse conditions (e.g. sudden drought)
• Predictive dormancy

  • Hibernation in mammals during winter/low temperatures (e.g. Hedgehogs)
• Consequential dormancy

  • Aestivation in snails to protect themselves from desiccation (drying out) during periods of high drought
• Daily torpor

  A period of reduced activity in some animals with high metabolic rates, where they lower body temperature on a daily basis to conserve energy
• Migration

  Avoiding metabolic adversity by expending energy to relocate to a more suitable environment
• Migration

  • Birds flying south for the winter
• Migratory behavior

  Can be innate and learned
• Tracking techniques during migration

  • Satellite tracking
  • Leg rings