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Such organisms (frogs, for example) rely on environmental heat sources, [3] which permit them to operate at very economical metabolic rates. [ 4 ] Some of these animals live in environments where temperatures are practically constant, as is typical of regions of the abyssal ocean and hence can be regarded as homeothermic ectotherms.
In 1847, Carl Bergmann published his observations that endothermic body size (i.e. mammals) increased with increasing latitude, commonly known as Bergmann's rule. [9] His rule postulated that selection favored within species individuals with larger body sizes in cooler temperatures because the total heat loss would be diminished through lower surface area to volume ratios. [8]
Photosynthesis, the process that allows plants to convert carbon dioxide and water to sugar and oxygen, is an endothermic process: plants absorb radiant energy from the sun and use it in an endothermic, otherwise non-spontaneous process. The chemical energy stored can be freed by the inverse (spontaneous) process: combustion of sugar, which ...
This is because the smaller plants do not have enough volume to create a considerable amount of heat. Large plants, on the other hand, have a lot of mass to create and retain heat. [5] Thermogenic plants are also protogynous, meaning that the female part of the plant matures before the male part of the same plant. This reduces inbreeding ...
As an example in everyday life, hand warmers make use of the oxidation of iron to achieve an exothermic reaction: 4Fe + 3O 2 → 2Fe 2 O 3 Δ H ⚬ = - 1648 kJ/mol A particularly important class of exothermic reactions is combustion of a hydrocarbon fuel, e.g. the burning of natural gas:
Ectomycorrhizal symbiosis, showing root tips with fungal mycelium from the genus Amanita. An ectomycorrhiza (from Greek ἐκτός ektos, "outside", μύκης mykes, "fungus", and ῥίζα rhiza, "root"; pl. ectomycorrhizas or ectomycorrhizae, abbreviated EcM) is a form of symbiotic relationship that occurs between a fungal symbiont, or mycobiont, and the roots of various plant species.
Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature as its own body temperature, thus avoiding the need for internal thermoregulation.
Insect winter ecology describes the overwinter survival strategies of insects, which are in many respects more similar to those of plants than to many other animals, such as mammals and birds. Unlike those animals, which can generate their own heat internally (endothermic), insects must rely on external sources to provide their heat (ectothermic).