Temperature control

Thermoregulation is the process by which an animal regualtes its temperature. Animals that can maintain a stable body temperature are sometimes called homiotherms or warm blooded. Animals with a body temperature that is more or less the same of that of the enviroment are sometimes called poikilotherms or cold-blooded.
A ecotherm such as a reptile has a body temperature that changes with the enviromental temperature. However, ectotherms can use behavioural control mechanisms to regulate their internal body temperature.
All mammals and birds are endotherms. They control their body temperature indepedantly of the enviroment using internal physiological controls mechanisms as well as behavioural ones. Not all the body of the mammal is kept at a constant temperature, only the body core. The skin and tissue close to the body surface are always cooler than the core becuase it is through these structures that heat is exchanged with the enviroment
Generally, endotherms can remain active over a far wider range of envirometnal temperatures than can ecotherms. Within certain limits, endotherms are free to migrate long distances and maintain high rates of activity in all sorts of weather. This allows them to capture and kill prey or escape form ectothermic predators. Maintaining a body temperature different from that of the external enviroment requires a great deal of energy for metabolism. Consequently, although being endothermic has freed mammals and birds from fluctuations in enviroemtnal temperatures, it has made them slaves to their stomachs. They require much more food than ecotherms of equivalent size
Regulation of skin temperature. The system that regulates the skin surface temperature is more obvious to us because we are more concious of most of its main components; the set point, detectors, compartor, and connective mechanism
1. The set point is the preferred skin temperature, the temperatre at which a person feels comfortable
The detectors are thermoreceptors in the skin. Heat receptors detect increase in the skin temperature while cold receptors detect a decrease
1. The cortex oof the brain acts as a compartor. If we feel too hot or too cold, we may decide to move to a cooler or warmer area, remove or add clothing, or take some other voluntary action which brings our skin temperature back to its norm
The error signals are nerve impulses to vollunatry muscles
1. Behavioural responses act as the connective mechanism

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Temperature control

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	Created by harry_bygraves almost 11 years ago