Response in organisms?

Question

Explain the term "response" and disccuss why the ability to resspond is important for the survival of organisms in a natural habitat. In your discussion, refer to ONE example of response in animals and ONE example in plants.

Answer 1

In general, a response is a reaction to a stimulus. Thus, in plants, when light is shined on them, they grow towards the light. This is beneficial, because their leaves get more light, and they can photosynthesize more and grow more. In animals, many things can be stimuli. Take a paramecium, that is swimming around in water. If it bumps into an object, it backs up, turns a bit, and swims forwards again in a slightly different direction. This response allows it to continue to swim and do whatever it was doing before, for example, find food.

Answer 2

The term Response is dependent upon the term Stimulus and the term Stimulus is dependent upon Response. Example: the term stimulus is roughly defined as the least amount action by an organism to elicit a response. Take a nerve cell and use an electric probe to stimulate it, we find the the Spike Potential we can see of a graph to be a certain number of Mil-volts (say 1.6 or so). This is a Response

Answer 3

I would consider response to be any action to a stimulus. Organisms must respond all the time. One way animals respond to stimuli is when birds migrate. When it gets cold, birds fly south because they are responding to the weather. If they didn't fly south, they would eventually die. Venus fly traps respond to touch. So, when the Venus fly trap is stimulated, it closed on its prey. This response to stimulus is necessary in order for the plant to get food. Also, when trees loose their leaves, that is a responce. If some trees didn't loose their leaves then they would loose valuable energy needed for winter storage. Keep im mind that over time, as organisms respond to stimuli, they will evolve certain characteristics too.