Why are vitamins important in food?
Regulates bodily functions such as fluid regulation and nervous system function
Name the 2 nutritional components
- Proteins - aka essential amino acids
- Carbohydrates - energy and roughage
Name the two different carbs:
Simple sugars - glucose and fructose
complex sugars - cellulose
Name some defensive measures plants implore
Some have spines to protect leaves
Some form symbiosis with ants - when eaten ants will attack (Acaca trees)
Chemical defences
What are some of the secondary compounds used in plant defence?
Alkaloids: Toxins, disrupt metabolic processes
Tannins: Digestive reducing agents
List the benefits of fruits as a food source
Simple sugars but no protein
What are the benefits of leaves?
Complex carbs cellulose, difficult to digest, contain protein and vitamins but also secondary compounds
What are the benefits of eating flowers
Protien in polen simple sugars n nectars
What are the benefits and cons of eating saps / gums
simple and complex sugars as well as h20 and minerals
what are the benefits of eating insects?
they contain protein / fat
What is a determinate of food choice in mammals, the main one?
Energy, in mammals is dictated the need to maintain thermal homeostasis.
What is the amount of energy that corresponds to the amount a mammal needs to maintain internal body temp? Hint acronym
Basil metabolic rate, BMR
What dictates Basal metabolic rate?
Body size - creates a paradox in between gorilla and Tarsier, as the gorilla in theory should then desire food with higher energy sources
What is Kleibers law? what did it discover?
That Basal metabolic rate scales to approximately 3/4 the animals mass so the formula =
70(weight of animal) to the 0.75 power
Why do larger species need less calories per kilogram of body weight?
Because they are able to utilize energy far more efficiently.
What is Basal metabolic rate dedicated to?
Preserving heat loss that gets sucked out from the environment.
Where does heat loss escape from how does this impact the BMR?
Through the skin, therefore the more skin you have the more heat you lose = correlation to SA and BMR
What does being large do? Explain mathematically the advantage?
The larger you are th greater surface area you have, however the ratio between your surface area to volume is proportionately much smaller than that of a smaller animal, you therefore lose less heat
What’s another factor aside from required BMR that influences diet?
Gut Capacity, as it dictates food digestibility (how much time food spends in the gut)
What does gut capacity scale with? Hint it dictates BMR as well
Body size
What improves with body size? (not surface area or heat loss)
Digestibility
What are the Implications for diet choice of small animals?
They have a higher relative BMR (need more energy)
small gut capacity - need small digestible foods
Need high quality rapidly assimilated foods i.e fruits and.
How is the limit of acceptable diet defined?
The linear gut capacity is compared with the parabolic BMR, the area between the two dictates the acceptable diet range, Small animals lower on the BMR index as well as the gut capacity
What are the diet choice implications for larger animals?
Lower BMR
Larger gut capacity
can tolerate low quality hard to digest foods.
