首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Growth, reproduction, and daily metabolism all require an organism to expend energy. The expenditure of energy is essentially a
Growth, reproduction, and daily metabolism all require an organism to expend energy. The expenditure of energy is essentially a
admin
2015-09-25
36
问题
Growth, reproduction, and daily metabolism all require an organism to expend energy. The expenditure of energy is essentially a process of budgeting, just as finances are budgeted. If all of one’s money is spent on clothes, mere may be none left to buy food or go to the movies. Similarly, a plant or animal cannot squander all its energy on growing a big body if none would be left over for reproduction, for this is the surest way to extinction.
All organisms, therefore, allocate energy to growth, reproduction, maintenance, and storage. No choice is involved; this allocation comes as part of the genetic package from the parents. Maintenance for a given body design of an organism is relatively constant. Storage is important, but ultimately that energy will be used for maintenance, reproduction, or growth. Therefore the principal differences in energy allocation are likely to be between growth and reproduction.
Almost all of an organism’s energy can be diverted to reproduction, with very little allocated to building the body. Organisms at this extreme are " opportunists." At the other extreme are "competitors", almost all of whose resources are invested in building a huge body, with a bare minimum allocated to reproduction.
Dandelions are good examples of opportunists. Their seed heads raised just high enough above the ground to catch the wind, the plants are no bigger than they need be, their stems are hollow, and all the rigidity comes from their water content. Thus, a minimum investment has been made in the body that becomes a platform for seed dispersal. These very short-lived plants reproduce prolifically; that is to say they provide a constant rain of seed in the neighborhood of parent plants. A new plant will spring up wherever a seed falls on a suitable soil surface, but because they do not build big bodies, they cannot compete with other plants for space, water, or sunlight. These plants are termed opportunists because they rely on their seeds’ falling into settings where competing plants have been removed by natural processes, such as along an eroding riverbank, on landslips, or where a tree falls and creates a gap in the forest canopy.
Opportunists must constantly invade new areas to compensate for being displaced by more competitive species. Human landscapes of lawns, fields, or flowerbeds provide settings with bare soil and a lack of competitors that are perfect habitats for colonization by opportunists. Hence, many of the strongly opportunistic plants are the common weeds of fields and gardens.
Because each individual is short-lived, the population of an opportunist species is likely to be adversely affected by drought, bad winters, or floods. If their population is tracked through time, it will be seen to be particularly unstable—soaring and plummeting in irregular cycles.
The opposite of an opportunist is a competitor. These organisms tend to have big bodies, are long-lived, and spend relatively little effort each year on reproduction. An oak tree is a good example of a competitor. A massive oak claims its ground for 200 years or more, outcompeting all other would-be canopy trees by casting a dense shade and drawing up any free water in the soil. The leaves of an oak tree taste foul because they are rich in tannins, a chemical that renders them distasteful or indigestible to many organisms. The tannins are part of the defense mechanism that is essential to longevity. Although oaks produce thousands of acoms, the investment in a crop of acorns is small compared with the energy spent on building leaves, trunk, and roots. Once an oak tree becomes established, it is likely to survive minor cycles of drought and even fire. A population of oaks is likely to be relatively stable through time, and its survival is likely to depend more on its ability to withstand the pressures of competition or predation than on its ability to take advantage of chance events. It should be noted, however, that the pure opportunist or pure competitor is rare in nature, as most species fall between the extremes of a continuum, exhibiting a blend of some opportunistic and some competitive characteristics.
According to the passage, the classification of organisms as "opportunists" or "competitors" is determined by______.
选项
A、how the genetic information of an organism is stored and maintained
B、the way in which the organism invests its energy resources
C、whether the climate in which the organism lives is mild or extreme
D、the variety of natural resources the organism consumes in its environment
答案
B
解析
信息推断题。文章第三段分别定义了“opportunists”和“competitors”,指出“机会主义者”(opportunists)所有的能量几乎都可以转用于繁殖,基本没有多少能量被分配用于生长。“竞争者”(competitors)处于另一个极端,“竞争者”几乎将其所有的能量都用于生长一个庞大的身躯,而仅用最低限度的能量进行繁殖。由此可知,两者的区别在于生物体分配能量的方式不同,与B选项内容一致。故答案为B。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/aYJYFFFM
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
RichardSatava,programmanagerforadvancedmedicaltechnologies,hasbeenadrivingforcebringingvirtualrealitytomedicine
TheearlyretirementofexperiencedworkersisseriouslyharmingtheU.S.economy,accordingtoanewreportfromtheHudsonIn
Obviously,thepercapitaincomeofacountrydependsonmanythings,andanystatisticaltestthatdoesnottakeaccountofall
Tobroadentheirvotingappealinthepresidentialelectionof1796,theFederalistsselectedThomasPinckney,aleadingSouthC
Afterseveralnucleardisasters,a_____hasragedoverthesafetyofnuclearenergy.
Smallbusinessownersmustaccepttheburdensofentrepreneurship.Beinginbusinessforyour-selfrequiresyourfullattention
ThehistoryofAfrican-Americansduringthepast400yearsistraditionallynarrated【21】anongoingstraggleagainst【22】andindif
Aninvisibleborderdividesthosearguingforcomputersintheclassroomonthebehalfofstudents’careerprospectsandthosea
AnintelligentTVviewermayoccasionallybecomeenragedbythe______argumentationincommercials.
Asforthemissingfunds,thecompanymanager,whendemandedtogiveanexplanation,couldnotevencomeupwitha______one.(北京大
随机试题
2000年7月,康惠医院与金辉外贸公司签订委托协议。协议约定由金辉外贸公司从日本为仁爱医院购买成套医疗设备,和平医院负责技术谈判和机械选型,金辉外贸公司负责承办进口设备的全部手续并协助医院做好设备验收工作。2000年9月,金辉外贸公司与日本某公司签
一家天津注册的技术先进型服务企业,2018年支付合理的工资薪金总额3000万元(其中,残疾职工工资500万元),实际发生党组织工作经费300万元。另外,企业当年购置节能节水专用设备1000万元,购置完毕即投入使用。根据以上资料,回答下列问题:该企
对易受暗示的学生应着重培养其意志品质的()。
我国宏观经济调控的主体是()。
人民检察院应当自接到公安机关提请逮捕后的()以内,作出批准逮捕或者不批准逮捕的决定。
关于RNA的生物合成,下列哪项叙述是错误的
患者,男性,35岁。因右下第二前磨牙中央尖折断,被诊断为慢性根尖周炎。患牙不松动,X线片见根尖部呈燕尾状吸收,根尖周X线投射区5mm×5mm,边界较清楚。患牙的治疗为()。
在生产力和生产关系的相互关系中()
小端模式下如果从0x60000010开始到0x60000017存放的一个双字为0x123456789ABCDEF0,且R1=0x60000010,则加载指令LDRBR0,[R1]使R0=___________【53】、LDRHR2,[R1,#2]使R2
IseethisprincipalalloverasIgothroughmyday.Iseerimsoncarwheelsthatcostupwardsof$500,justforalittlebit
最新回复
(
0
)