Homeostasis

Homeostasis is defined as a balance of internal conditions and the maintenance of regularity by way of self-regulating mechanisms or else a balance of homogeny through population. Homeostasis can be introduced through looking at an individual and studying how they maintain their normal conditions such as body temperatures, how the organs continue to do their jobs for example, how the pancreas produces insulin and secretes it into the blood stream. Homeostasis could also be introduced by way of a population. For example, a population needs to remain intact with enough animals, for instance, to thrive and maintain that population.
Predator and prey come to mind when we think of homeostasis in a population, we think of lions and gazelles. For …show more content…
If one side is too high or too low, then you are unbalanced and therefore not achieving homeostasis. This introduces the negative feedback cycle. In the textbook “Human Biology” by Sylvia S Mader, there is an example of a negative feedback system in a person for body temperature. A stimulus is sensed, thus the sensor sends data to the control centre in which case the brain has a direct response to the stimulus. For an example, we are talking about body temperature. The body finds itself too hot therefore, that is the stimulus. The sensor is notified of this information and consequently sends the information to the brain in this instance to direct a response to the body to fix the problem. This would mean that the blood vessels would dilate and sweat glands would secrete as sweating is the body’s natural way of cooling itself down. This would then have a negative feedback and the body would then return to its’ regular temperature. The same goes for if the body was too cold, then the blood vessels would constrict and sweat glands would be inactive. Shivering would most likely occur due to the fact that shivering is the body’s way of heating itself up. The continuous motion of quivering helps to warm the body. Then the negative feedback would be sent and temperature would return to normal once again. The negative feedback loop is how the body maintains …show more content…
When you think about it, if the population is growing, then that is definitely a sign that their individual homeostasis is working very well since they are in good health and are able to produce more healthy offspring subsequently meaning that they will reproduce healthy offspring as well. It also shows that the parents are living longer to a part of the ever-growing population. As a result, this species is maintaining homeostasis as a whole. If the species was not maintaining homeostasis, then the population would not