physiological ecology
Physiological ecology (animal)
A discipline that combines the study of physiological processes, the functions of living organisms and their parts, with ecological processes that connect the individual organism with population dynamics and community structure. See Population ecology
Physiological ecologists focus on whole-animal function and adjustments to ever-changing environments, in both laboratory and field. Short-term behavioral adjustments and longer-term physiological adjustments tend to maximize the fitness of animals, that is, their capacity to survive and reproduce successfully. Among the processes that physiological ecologists study are temperature regulation, energy metabolism and energetics, nutrition, respiratory gas exchange, water and osmotic balance, and responses to environmental stresses. These environmental stresses may include climate variation, nutrition, disease, and toxic exposure. For instance, climate affects animal heat and mass balances, and such changes affect body temperature regulation. Behavioral temperature regulation (typically, avoidance of temperature extremes) modifies mass and energy intake and expenditure, and the difference between intake and expenditure provides the discretionary mass for growth and reproduction. Mortality risk (survivorship) also depends on temperature-dependent behavior, which determines daily activity. Activity time constrains the time for foraging and habitat selection, which in turn influence not only mortality risk but also community composition. Animals are similarly constrained in their discretionary mass and energy by reduction in nutrition, which decreases absorbed food, and by disease and toxins, which may elevate the costs to maintain a higher body temperature (fever). See Behavioral ecology, Homeostasis
Physiological ecology (plant)
The branch of plant science that seeks physiological (mechanistic) explanations for ecological observations. Emphasis is placed on understanding how plants cope with environmental variation at the physiological level, and on the influence of resource limitations on growth, metabolism, and reproduction of individuals within and among plant populations, along environmental gradients, and across different communities and ecosystems. The responses of plants to natural, controlled, or manipulated conditions above and below ground provide a basis for understanding how the features of plants enable their survival, persistence, and spread. Information gathered is often used to identify the physiological and morphological features of a plant that permit adaptation to different sets of environmental conditions.
The environments that plants occupy are often subject to variation or change. The ecophysiological characteristics of these plants must be able to accommodate this or the plants face extinction. Given the right conditions, ample time, and genetic variation among a group of interbreeding individuals, plant populations and species can evolve to accommodate marked ecological change or habitat heterogeneity. If evolutionary changes in physiology or morphology occur on a local or regional scale, populations within a single species may diverge in their characteristics. Separate ecological races (ecotypes) arise in response to an identifiable, set of environmental conditions. Ecotypes are genetically distinct and are particularly well suited to the local or regional environment they occupy. Such ecotypes can often increase the geographical range and amplitude of environmental conditions that the species occupies or tolerates. Ecotypes may also occur as a series of populations arrayed over a well-defined environmental gradient called an ecocline. In contrast, if ecotypes are not present, some plant species may still be able to accommodate a wide range of growth conditions through morphological and physiological adjustments, by acclimation to a single factor (such as light) or acclimatization to a complex suite of factors which define the entire habitat. Acclimatization can occur when individuals from several different regions or populations are grown in a common location and adjust, physiologically or morphologically, to this location. Acclimation and acclimatization can therefore be defined as the ability of a single genotype (individual) to express multiple phenotypes (outward appearances) in response to variable growing conditions. Neither requires underlying genetic changes, though some genetic change might occur which could mean that the response seen may itself evolve. Acclimation and acclimatization may also be called phenotypic plasticity. See Plant evolution
Studies of metabolic rates in relation to environmental conditions within populations, ecotypes, or species provide a way to measure the tolerance limits expressed at different scales. These data in turn help identify the scales at which different adaptations are expressed, and enhance an understanding of the evolution of physiological processes. Combining observations and measurements from the field with those obtained in laboratory and controlled environment experiments can help identify which conditions may be most influential on plant processes and therefore what may have shaped the physiological responses seen. Laboratory and controlled environment (common garden) experiments also assist in helping identify how much of the variation expressed in a particular metabolic process can be assigned to a particular environmental factor and how much to the plants themselves and the genetic and developmental plasticity they possess. See Ecology, Ecosystem, Plant physiology