Read the given paragraph and answer the given question.
Nearly all plants cannot maintain a constant internal environment. Their body temperature changes with the ambient temperature. In aquatic animals, the osmotic concentration of the body fluids change with that of the ambient water osmotic concentration. These animals and plants are simply conformers. Considering the benefits of a constant internal environment to the organism, we must ask why these conformers had not evolved to become regulators. Recall the human analogy we used above; much as they like, how many people can really afford an air conditioner ? Many simply 'sweat it out' and resign themselves to suboptimal performance in hot summer months. Very small animals are rarely found in polar regions. During the course of evolution, the costs and benefits of maintaining a constant internal environment are taken into consideration. Some species have evolved the ability to regulate, but only over a limited range of environmental conditions, beyond which they simply conform.If the stressful external conditions are localised or remain only for a short duration, the organism has other alternatives for survival.
Very small animals are rarely found in polar regions because they:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Lose body heat very fast because of a larger surface area relative to their volume.
Option (1) Cannot tolerate very low temperature. — Incorrect. The reason is the rate of heat loss, not a fixed limit of tolerance.
Option (2) Lose body heat very fast because of a larger surface area relative to their volume. — Correct. A large surface area relative to volume makes them lose heat very fast in the cold.
Option (3) Lose body heat slowly because of a larger surface area relative to their volume. — Incorrect. A larger surface area makes them lose heat fast, not slowly.
Option (4) Lose body heat very fast because of a smaller surface area relative to their volume. — Incorrect. Small animals have a larger, not smaller, surface area relative to their volume.
Note 1: The passage is taken from NCERT. NTA has put lines of the NCERT text together to make it. Most CUET (UG) questions come straight from NCERT, so study the book line by line, including figures and their titles.
Note 2: This question is from the topic “Responses to Abiotic Factors” in Chapter 13, Organisms and Populations, of the pre-rationalised NCERT book. This portion is not in the present NCERT book, where the chapter is now Chapter 11, Organisms and Populations. The extract below is from the pre-rationalised edition.
NCERT Extract (Pre-rationalised edition, Chapter 13, Organisms and Populations):
Responses to Abiotic Factors – “… Thermoregulation is energetically expensive for many organisms. This is particularly true for small animals like shrews and humming birds. Heat loss or heat gain is a function of surface area. Since small animals have a larger surface area relative to their volume, they tend to lose body heat very fast when it is cold outside; then they have to expend much energy to generate body heat through metabolism.”