Respiratory Physiology of Vertebrates
Life With and Without Oxygen

Describes how vertebrates get the oxygen they need and explores examples of extreme respiratory performance, including diving and high-altitude survival.

Göran E. Nilsson (Edited by)

9780521878548, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 January 2010

350 pages, 71 b/w illus. 9 tables
25.4 x 18 x 2 cm, 0.84 kg

How do vertebrates get the oxygen they need, or even manage without it for shorter or longer periods of time? How do they sense oxygen, how do they take it up from water or air, and how do they transport it to their tissues? Respiratory system adaptations allow numerous vertebrates to thrive in extreme environments where oxygen availability is limited or where there is no oxygen at all. Written for students and researchers in comparative physiology, this authoritative summary of vertebrate respiratory physiology begins by exploring the fundamentals of oxygen sensing, uptake and transport in a textbook style. Subsequently, the reader is shown important examples of extreme respiratory performance, like diving and high altitude survival in mammals and birds, air breathing in fish, and those few vertebrates that can survive without any oxygen at all for several months, showing how evolution has solved the problem of life without oxygen.

Preface Göran E. Nilsson
Part I. General Principles: 1. Introduction - why we need oxygen Göran E. Nilsson
2. Sensing oxygen Mikko Nikinmaa
3. Oxygen uptake and transport in water breathers Steve F. Perry and Kathleen M. Gilmour
4. Oxygen uptake and transport in air breathers Nini Skovgaard, James W. Hicks and Tobias Wang
Part II. Special Cases: 5. Adaptations to hypoxia in fishes Göran E. Nilsson and David J. Randall
6. Breathing air in water and in air: the air-breathing fishes Jeffrey B. Graham and Nicholas C. Wegner
7. Air breathers under water: diving mammals and birds Lars P. Folkow and Arnoldus Schytte Blix
8. Vertebrate life at high altitude Frank L. Powell and Susan R. Hopkins
9. Surviving without any oxygen Göran E. Nilsson
Index.

Subject Areas: Zoology: Vertebrates [PSVW], Animal physiology [PSVD]