Study Guide for the Final Exam

As you go through your notes, here are some topics you should focus on:

1) Adaptation: what is it? What causes adaptations? How do we recognize adaptations? Are all traits adaptive? Why not? How can we tell?

2) What are the 3 main strategies employed by animals when confronted by environmental change? What is the difference between adaptation, acclimatization and acclimation?

3) What is the difference between isometric and allometric scaling? What does the graph of an isometric relationship look like? An allometric relationship? How does the value of the exponent and the proportionality constant affect the shape of the graph?

4) How does metabolic rate scale with body mass? Why is it an allometric relationship? What is the difference between mass-specific and whole-body metabolic rate?

5) What affects metabolic rate (body size, body plan, temperature, endo vs. ectothermy, environment, activity...)? What constrains metabolic rate?

6) How does metabolic rate vary with temperature? Endo vs. ectothermy contrasts? What is compensation? What is he thermoneutral zone? What affects lethal temperatures? If you don’t maintain homeostasis, how do you survive the cold?

7) What is necessary for gas exchange? How does partial pressure of gases affect gas exchange? Altitude? In water, how does solubility and temperature affect gas exchange? Why is it harder to breathe water than air? Special adaptations of water breathers? Special adaptations of air breathers?

8) What are the advantages and disadvantages of breathing air? What are the evolutionary stages in the transition from water to air breathing (think also how this relates to the circulatory system...)? What is the difference between tidal and flow through ventilation?

9) How do different animals transport gases? Do all animals use a circulatory system fro this purpose? How do respiratory pigments work? What is the ODC? What affects the shape of the ODC? Is the ODC shaped the same way for all respiratory pigments? What is the biochemical basis for gas exchange? How does acid/base balance play a role? How does hemoglobin buffer the blood?

10) What are the 2 basic designs of circulatory systems? What are some of the physical laws that affect the movement of blood through the circulatory system (e.g. resistance, wall tension, type of flow)? How do these affect flow through the various parts of the circulatory system? What regulates flow through a circulatory system?

11) What are the structural differences in the vessels of the closed circulatory system? How do they reflect their different roles? Why is the arterial system said to be a pressure reservoir and the venous system a volume reservoir? What happens in capillary beds to allow exchange of materials?

12) How does pressure vary through the circulatory system? Is it the same in all animals? Special adaptations? How does pressure vary through the cardiac cycle? How is blood pressure regulated in the short and long term (neurally, hormonally, local effects)?

13) What is the function of the heart? What are some of the differences in design? Differences in heart structure and function among major taxa of animals? How does this reflect differences in lifestyle, metabolic demands etc.? Advantages of a separated heart? Special adaptations (e.g. diving)? How does the cardiac cycle work? How is it regulated? Regulation of heart rate? Regulation of stroke volume? Regulation of peripheral resistance?

Try to make connections and understand how the various functions we have studied relate to the organisms exhibiting them. Think in an evolutionary context!

Once again, remember that there are no assigned readings. Just use the text to help you understand the lecture material.

As promised, here is your freebie:

Explain the relationship between ventricular stretching and contractile force, known as the Frank-Starling Law of the heart (5 marks).

Good luck with your studying and contact me if you have questions......