S14
Challenges to Respiratory Gas Transport in Vertebrates
Organizer:
Michael Berenbrink (Liverpool, UK)
Maintaining aerobic scope for activity, e.g. locomotion, digestion, growth and reproduction in animals requires an adequate capacity for respiratory gas transport of O2 and CO2 between the environment and respiring tissues. This session explores mechanisms by which the respiratory gas transport system of vertebrates from fish to man can respond to the challenges of life in extreme and/or changing environments, such as high altitude, deep sea, hot and cold climates and/or climate warming and ocean acidification. The physico-chemical parameters of these environments may affect aerobic scope of animals twofold. Either by increasing metabolic cost of homeostasis, leaving less energy for other activities, or by affecting the capacity for respiratory gas transport directly, e.g. under hypoxia or as proposed in the hypothesis of oxygen and capacity limited thermal tolerance. Invited speakers for this session are internationally recognized experts that cover the breadth of vertebrate responses to respiratory challenges.
Speakers:
1) Steve Perry (Ottawa, Canada)
The Respiratory Challenges Imposed by Gill Remodelling in Fish
2) Roy Weber (Aarhus, Denmark)
High altitude adaptation in Andean frog hemoglobin
3) Tobias Wang (Aarhus, Denmark)
Respiratory challenges in digesting reptiles
4) Kevin Campbell (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada):
Thermal sensitivity of hemoglobin from the extinct mammoth
5) Jay Storz (Lincoln, Nebraska, USA)
High altitude adaptation in deer mice hemoglobin
6) Michael Berenbrink (Liverpool, UK)
Evolution of myoglobin molecular surface and whole organism diving capacity in mammals and birds