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Heat Transfer in Animals.
Member rating: No Rating | Words: | Submitted: Fri Dec 12 2003
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Heat Transfer in Animals As with all objects, living organisms gain and lose heat energy through conduction, convection, and radiation. They react to the temperature in their surroundings, and attempt to reach a 'thermal equilibrium', meaning that both the temperatures within and exterior to the organism will try to be the same. However, the maintenance of body heat is crucial to the survival of an animal. It must be kept as stable as possible. Overheating will lead to dehydration and under-heating to hypothermia. There are different methods of attaining a stable body temperature in different species of animals, depending on their diet, habitat and behavior. Also to be taken into account is the fact that chemical reactions taking place inside the body of the organism tend to release heat. This can be useful if the organism lives in a cooler climate, but dangerous in a hotter habitat. In this...
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