Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Welcome to Thermal Adaptations

(Fig. 1 Thorny Devil in Kalbarri National Park)
(Duncan, 2014)



The external environment of all species is constantly changing and varies greatly throughout areas of the world. A significant environmental change affecting all organisms is climate change, specifically temperature. The survival of a species in a changing environment is dependent on their ability to either adapt or relocate. 


Fig. 2: The relationship between thermoregulators and thermoconformers with increasing external temperature.
(Angilletta 2009)


Each species has an optimal range for temperature, dependent on their evolutionary origin and physiology. When environmental temperature is outside optimal range, the organism must either thermoconform or thermoregulate. The methods of doing so are varied between endothermic and ectothermic species as will be explained in this blog.



Fig 1:
Duncan, Paul 2014, Thorny Devil in Kalbarri National Park, viewed 8/03/16. 

Fig 2: 
Angilletta Jr. M.J 2009, The relationship between air temperature and organismal temperature might indicate some form of thermoregulation, viewed 10/3/16

1 comment:

  1. please note this is not an official blog post, just an introduction

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