reptiles, amphibians, and fish), whereas an endotherm uses homeostasis to maintain its internal temperature.
This is a difference between ectotherms and endotherms: an ectotherm uses the environmental temperature to control its internal temperature (e.g. Compare this to a warm-blooded whale in the same environment: it needs to keep its body temperature higher than that of the water around it, and so it will expend more energy in temperature regulation. For example, a cold-blooded fish keeps its temperature at the same level as the water around it, and so doesn’t need to control its internal temperature. The level of energy that an organism needs to maintain homeostasis depends on the type of organism, as well as the environment it inhabits. Homeostasis is the mechanism that enables us to keep our internal environment relatively constant – not too hot, or too cold, not too hungry or tired. Feedback loops are important because they allow living organisms to maintain homeostasis. A feedback loop is a biological occurrence wherein the output of a system amplifies the system (positive feedback) or inhibits the system (negative feedback).
A few questions remain: How do these systems work? What is a positive feedback? What is negative feedback? Where do we find these systems in nature?īiological systems operate on a mechanism of inputs and outputs, each caused by and causing a certain event. This result will either increase the change to the system or reduce it to bring the system back to normal. Feedback loops are therefore the process whereby a change to the system results in an alarm which will trigger a certain result. Feedback is defined as the information gained about a reaction to a product, which will allow the modification of the product.