Lecture 5

Question 1

What is integration in animal ecophysiology?

Answer 1

Communication between the external and internal environment

Question 2

What does the process of intervention mean in animals?

Answer 2

That they are sensitive to environmental cues and somehow they put this all together in a process called integration.
They pass the information about that environment onto their bodies that will react in a particular way internally.

Question 3

Once animals have integrated the information about their environment and passed that information onto their bodies their bodies will react in a particular way internally. Why is this?

Answer 3

So there are particular mechanisms in the body that communicate that information and that is mostly due to the neuroendocrine system

Question 4

What is the neuroendocrine system?

Answer 4

Is the production of signally molecules specifically hormones which are either initiated by the brain or occur internally within the brain

Question 5

What do the hormones produced by the neuroendocrine system go on the produce?

Answer 5

Changes in physiology and behaviour

Question 6

What are the three subspecies of the well studied white-crowned sparrows that breed at different latitudes in western USA?

Answer 6

Zonotrichia leucophrys:

• gambelii
• pugetensis
• oriantha

Question 7

How do the 3 subspecies of white-crowned sparrows differ?

Answer 7

They behave in different ways in terms of their reproduction and migration

Question 8

The subspecies of the white-crowned sparrow behave in different ways. How does the sub-specie gambelii behave?

Answer 8

It has the most extreme behaviours breeding in the northern part of Canada extending up into Alaska in summer, winter grounds in Mexico and south western side of the United States.
So are long distance migrants which means they have a relatively short time to breed. They only produce one brood of chicks during the breeding season.
(Go all the way through the summer in the artic because area is very productive with lots of insects for the birds to eat- lots of food to feed their young on but environmental conditions deteriorate very quickly so birds have to leave)

Question 9

The 3 subspecies of white-crowned sparrows behave in different ways. How does the sun-specie pugetensis behave?

Answer 9

Spends all its time in one region, does not migrate so has a long breeding season and rear 2-3 broods of chicks.

Question 10

The 3 subspecies of white-crowned sparrows behave in different ways. How does the sun-specie oriantha behave?

Answer 10

Lives in mountainous habitats and is a altitudinal migrant, move to higher altitudes as snow melts to breed

Question 11

Annual cycles have energetic/ temporal constraints as each event is very costly so no overlap is possible. Give examples of these costly annual cycle events

Answer 11

. Moult- costly because birds have to take in a lot of protein. The fact that they are losing feathers means that they are not able to thermoregulate very well so lose heat to the environment
. Migration- burn up a lot of energy on migratory flights
. Reproduction- costly

So the events in the annual cycle are so expensive that you can only do one of them at a particular time of year

Question 12

How do annual cycle events occur in sequence with each at a particular time of year?

Answer 12

Proximate factors: environmental cues that influence timing of annual cycle events

Question 13

What is the photoinducible phase?

Answer 13

Where the reproductive system is extremely sensitive to light

Question 14

What are the two effects of long days on the reproductive system?

Answer 14

. Stimulate gonadal growth
. Induce the gradual development of an inhibitory process that eventually causes the reproductive system to shut down- photorefractoriness

Question 15

What is photorefractoriness?

Answer 15

A physiological state in which the animal is unable to respond to a daylength that previously induced a change in the activity of the reproductive axis

Question 16

The regulation by photoperiod is very similar between starlings and what? How?

Answer 16

Gambel’s white-crowned sparrows as both show “absolute” photorefractoriness

Question 17

How does the enzyme thermal sensitivity differ between a mullet and an Antarctic fish?

Answer 17

. The mullet is a temperate species which is happy over a wide range of temperatures (10-35 degrees)
. The Antarctic fish however stays in an environment that stays at about 2 degrees its whole life and all of its biological processes, all its physiology have become adapted to those temperatures and any changes in temperature (even as little as 1 degree) it dies and it is one of the faster warming places in the world

Question 18

When heat is transferred to an animal where does the radiation come from?

Answer 18

Directly from the sun but there is also radiation coming from the atmosphere, there’s radiation coming from the ground and from the trees

Question 19

When it comes to changes in temp how is the affected by the animals size? And why?

Answer 19

The larger you are the less likely you get changes in temp, when smaller have a bigger SA so bigger area for exchanges in heat. Body temp is fairly constant because it takes a lot of energy to change it because of their size
(Seen in adult and young crocodiles)