Operational definition
Allocation function.
The continuing expenditure of energy and matter required to preserve the existing organized, viable state of a biological system without counting net growth or reproductive production.
It includes:
- maintenance of ion gradients;
- molecular turnover;
- membrane integrity;
- osmotic regulation;
- protein quality control;
- baseline repair;
- circulation and ventilation where applicable;
- thermoregulation where applicable.
Maintenance is a rate of sustaining existing organization, not merely inactivity.
46.1 Basal cellular maintenance
- maintenance of ion gradients
- membrane integrity
- protein turnover
- RNA turnover
- DNA repair
- molecular quality control
- organelle maintenance
- osmotic balance
46.2 Organ-system maintenance
- circulation
- ventilation
- active transport
- filtration
- tissue replacement
- internal fluid regulation
46.3 Thermoregulation
- metabolic heat production
- evaporative cooling
- circulation changes
- behavioral thermoregulation
- insulation maintenance
Thermoregulation applies where biologically relevant; it is not a universal cost of equal importance across life.