A stenotherm (from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
στενός ''stenos'' "narrow" and θέρμη ''therme'' "heat") is a species or living organism only capable of living or surviving within a narrow temperature range. This type of temperature specialization is often seen in organisms that live in environments where the temperature is relatively stable, such as in deep sea environments or in polar regions.
The opposite of a stenotherm is a
eurytherm
A eurytherm is an organism, often an endotherm, that can function at a wide range of ambient temperatures. To be considered a eurytherm, all stages of an organism's life cycle must be considered, including juvenile and larval stages. These wide ...
, an organism that can function at a wide range of different body temperatures. Eurythermic organisms are typically found in environments where the temperature varies more significantly, such as in temperate or tropical regions.
The size, shape, and composition of an organism's body can affect its temperature regulation, with larger organisms tending to have a more stable internal temperature than smaller organisms.
Examples
''
Chionoecetes opilio
''Chionoecetes opilio'', a species of snow crab, also known as opilio crab or opies, is a predominantly epifaunal crustacean native to shelf depths in the northwest Atlantic Ocean and north Pacific Ocean. It is a well-known commercial species ...
'' is a stenothermic organism, and temperature affects its biology throughout its life history, from embryo to adult. Small changes in temperature (< 2 °C) can increase the duration of egg incubation for ''C. opilio'' by a full year.
[Moriyasu and Lanteigne, 1998 M. Moriyasu and C. Lanteigne, Embryo development and reproductive cycle in the snow crab, ''Chionoecetes opilio'' (Crustacea: Majidae).]
See also
*
Ecotope
Ecotopes are the smallest ecologically distinct landscape features in a landscape mapping and classification system. As such, they represent relatively homogeneous, spatially explicit landscape functional units that are useful for stratifying land ...
References
Ecology
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