CAP exam 1 with complete solutions

What is Animal Physiology? - Answer- The study of morphological, physiological and behavioral adaptations enhancing an organism's ability to survive, grow and reproduce with respect to the biotic and abiotic environment What is the Goal of Animal Physiology? - Answer- Ecological physiology attempts to explain life by linking the proximate question: What is the adaptation and how does it work? to ultimate causation: What evolutionary pressures shaped the adaptation, i.e., Why the ecological order is the way it is? Adaptation studies - Answer- s look at animal life history and strategy tactics to answer not only "what" and "how" but more importantly, try to understand "why" things work the way they do Stress studies - Answer- quantify "how" animals handle environmental change and define tolerance limits (what) thereby defining the organisms fundamental niche Assumptions: of the Fry Paradigm - Answer- 1. Animal behavior is distinct from, but related to physiology 2. Environment influences behavior by acting on physiology 3. Integrated physiological responses have meaning only when interpreted relative to an animal's activity within its environment Knut Schmidt-Nielsen - Answer- water balance George Bartholomew - Answer- ecological physiology inductive reasoning Per Scholander - Answer- adaptations on arctic animals The Law of Emergent Properties - Answer- as complexity increases from level to level in the biological hierarchy properties emerge that could not be predicted from lower organization levels Barriers to free diffusion - Answer- Membranes regulate movement of molecules in and out of cells, and in doing so establish concentration gradients Exocytosis/Secretion - Answer- Membranes can actively release substances, e.g., synaptic transmitter substances Reception of extracellular chemical messengers - Answer- - Specific extracellular messenger compounds may bind to the cell's outer surface and initiate intercellular regulatory processes Transduction whereby a cell converts one kind of signal or stimulus into another e.g., environmental stimuli into electrical signals - Answer- - Specialized membranes release substances in response to specific stimuli Conduction of bioelectric impulses - Answer- - Excitable cell membranes can generate a self-perpetuating electrical waves called an "action potential" Ionic Steady State - Answer- While cellular ion concentrations differ greatly between interstitial fluids and cytosol, cells are in osmotic equilibrium with their environment The ionic steady state is established by four important characteristics - Answer- Differential permeability of the membrane Unequal solute concentration on either side of the membrane Electrical charge of ions on either side of the membrane Active molecular pumps embedded in the cellular membrane Permeability - Answer- (P) determines physiological exchange rates between the internal and external cell environment and defines the rate at which molecules passively cross the cell membrane Physical & chemical factors affecting permeability - Answer- 1. Viscosity of the membrane - determined by sterol content 2. Thickness of the membrane - between 0.2 and 6 microns 3. Presence of protein gaits - channel proteins and gates 4. Size of the diffusing molecules - direct for organics; indirect for inorganics 5. Charge of the diffusing molecules diffusion - Answer- Movement of uncharge