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Related Concept Videos

Energy Budgets and Reproductive Strategies00:51

Energy Budgets and Reproductive Strategies

Organisms must balance energy intake with the energy required for growth, maintenance, and reproduction. These trade-offs result in a variety of survivorship and reproductive strategies, including semelparity and iteroparity. Semelparous species reproduce only once in their lifetime, often investing most available resources into that single reproductive event. Iteroparous species, by contrast, reproduce multiple times over their lifetimes, typically allocating fewer resources to any single...
Entropy within the Cell01:22

Entropy within the Cell

A living cell's primary tasks of obtaining, transforming, and using energy to do work may seem simple. However, the second law of thermodynamics explains why these tasks are harder than they appear. None of the energy transfers in the universe are completely efficient. In every energy transfer, some amount of energy is lost in a form that is unusable. In most cases, this form is heat energy. Thermodynamically, heat energy is defined as the energy transferred from one system to another that is...
Sugars as Energy Storage Molecules01:10

Sugars as Energy Storage Molecules

Sugar (a simple carbohydrate) metabolism (chemical reactions) is a classic example of the many cellular processes that use and produce energy. Living things consume sugar as a major energy source because sugar molecules have considerable energy stored within their bonds. Consumed carbohydrates have their origins in photosynthesizing organisms like plants. During photosynthesis, plants use the energy of sunlight to convert carbon dioxide gas into sugar molecules, like glucose. Because this...
Sugars as Energy Storage Molecules01:10

Sugars as Energy Storage Molecules

Sugar (a simple carbohydrate) metabolism (chemical reactions) is a classic example of the many cellular processes that use and produce energy. Living things consume sugar as a major energy source because sugar molecules have considerable energy stored within their bonds. Consumed carbohydrates have their origins in photosynthesizing organisms like plants. During photosynthesis, plants use the energy of sunlight to convert carbon dioxide gas into sugar molecules, like glucose. Because this...
Second Law of Thermodynamics00:53

Second Law of Thermodynamics

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that entropy, or the amount of disorder in a system, increases each time energy is transferred or transformed. Each energy transfer results in a certain amount of energy that is lost—usually in the form of heat—that increases the disorder of the surroundings. This can also be demonstrated in a classic food web. Herbivores harvest chemical energy from plants and release heat and carbon dioxide into the environment. Carnivores harvest the chemical energy...
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Second Law of Thermodynamics

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 6, 2026

Large Scale Energy Efficient Sensor Network Routing Using a Quantum Processor Unit
05:30

Large Scale Energy Efficient Sensor Network Routing Using a Quantum Processor Unit

Published on: September 8, 2023

When to store energy in a stochastic environment.

Barbara Fischer1, Ulf Dieckmann, Barbara Taborsky

  • 1Evolution and Ecology Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria.

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
|November 27, 2010
PubMed
Summary

Organisms optimally store energy when conditions are moderately unpredictable and stores are not full. Storing energy is favored in more variable or predictable environments, influencing life-history strategies.

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 6, 2026

Large Scale Energy Efficient Sensor Network Routing Using a Quantum Processor Unit
05:30

Large Scale Energy Efficient Sensor Network Routing Using a Quantum Processor Unit

Published on: September 8, 2023

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Ecological physiology
  • Life-history theory

Background:

  • Organisms store energy to survive unpredictable environmental conditions.
  • Previous theoretical studies focused on energy storage in constant or deterministic environments.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To analyze optimal energy allocation to storage, reproduction, and maintenance in stochastic environments.
  • To investigate how environmental variability and predictability influence energy storage strategies.

Main Methods:

  • Theoretical modeling of energy allocation.
  • Analysis of stochastic environments with varying energy availability.
  • Exploration of different environmental variability, predictability, and survival costs.

Main Results:

  • Optimal energy storage occurs at intermediate environmental energy availability and when stores are not saturated.
  • Energy storage is not optimal in environments with low variability and predictability.
  • Increased environmental variability or predictability favors energy allocation to storage.
  • Simultaneous allocation to reproduction, maintenance, and storage can be evolutionarily optimal in stochastic environments.

Conclusions:

  • Energy storage strategies are crucial for adapting to fluctuating environments.
  • Stochasticity in environmental energy availability significantly shapes optimal life-history strategies.
  • Findings challenge previous assumptions based on deterministic environments, highlighting the importance of storage in variable conditions.