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Respiratory Gas Tensions in the Environment

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Vertebrate Gas Exchange

Part of the book series: Advances in Comparative and Environmental Physiology ((COMPARATIVE,volume 6))

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to provide a brief introduction to the wide range of environmental oxygen and carbon dioxide partial pressures (PO2, PCO2) that certain vertebrates experience as a part of their natural life history. Various biological and physical features of the environment, particularly of aquatic systems, can lead to marked oscillations in the ambient gas tensions both daily and seasonally, and these in turn can have profound effects on the regulation of gas exchange in a number of these animals. In some instances, unfavourable gas concentrations in the environment (e.g. low O2 levels) can place restrictions on the activity range of an animal or limit the overall success of a species. On the other hand, animals that can tolerate the less than optimal gas composition of certain secluded habitats are often freed from risks of predation. Whereas some animals choose to live in confined, sometimes hypoxic areas (e.g. fossorial mammals), others are subject to periodic extremes of the medium in which they live (e.g. overwintering fish).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S., B3H 4J1, Canada

    R. G. Boutilier

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  1. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, B3H 4J1, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Robert G. Boutilier

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Boutilier, R.G. (1990). Respiratory Gas Tensions in the Environment. In: Boutilier, R.G. (eds) Vertebrate Gas Exchange. Advances in Comparative and Environmental Physiology, vol 6. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75380-0_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75380-0_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-75382-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-75380-0

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