A budget shows income and outgo, and in human terms we're usually interested in seeing that the income is greater than the outgo. In the natural world, budgets also are almost ubiquitous, though not concerned with money as such. Climatologists often talk of energy budgets, such as concerns with incoming solar radiation versus the energy radiated back out into space.
Energy budgets are important to biologists, too. If an organism is to
survive, input in the form of food energy must, at minimum, balance the expenditure of
energy involved in the life processes. If a plant or animal is to grow and reproduce,
then input must greatly exceed the amount necessary to just maintain life. People
sometimes can escape the consequences of breaking their budgets, at least for a time.
In the natural world, often the same is true. Organisms, too, can overspend as adverse
conditions cut income or boost outgo. But as with humans, there reaches a point of no
return, and in nature, there is no recourse to bankruptcy.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.