Test # 1: Study questions

Required reading: West et al., 2002,  Darveau et al. 2002 (or Hochachka et al., 2003).
Online vocabulary of comparative animal physiology (you need to know all posted definitions).

Recommended reading: Willmer et al. Environmental Physiology of Animals. 2^nd edition.
Part 1: Basic Principles (1. The Nature and Levels of Adaptation, 2. Fundamental Mechanisms of Adaptation, 3. The Problems of Size and Scale).
Part 2: Central Issues in Comparative Physiology (6. Metabolism and Energy Supply).

Test format: 4 assay questions (30 pts each), 6 short-answer questions or definitions (5 pts each).

Study questions

1. Define comparative physiology, its subject and central questions. Formulate August Krogh’s principle.
2. Define adaptation, acclimation and acclimatization. Explain how evolutionary adaptations can be discovered, and what approaches exist to prove the adaptive nature of a physiological trait.
3. Explain the method of phylogenetically independent contrast; how can phylogenies be incorporated into comparative physiology studies? Use an example of thermal adaptation in killifish Fundulus to explain the major steps of the method of phylogenetically independent contrasts and to demonstrate that latitudinal differences in activity of lactate dehydrogenase represents an evolutionary adaptation.
4. Define homeostasis and homeorrhesis. What is similar and different between these two concepts? Give examples of homeostatic physiological mechanisms in animals. Why is maintenance of homeostasis energetically expansive (e.g. breakdown of cellular energy expenses, expenses of thermoregulation in homeotherms).
5. Define allometric and isometric scaling; give examples. Explain how the following parameters scale with the body mass (weight) of animals: surface area; surface area-to-volume ratio; blood volume; lung volume; basal metabolic rate; mass-specific metabolic rate; maximal metabolic rate; bone mass (in terrestrial vertebrates);  heart rate; life span; cost of locomotion (energy required to move 1 kg of body mass by 1 km).
6. Describe the “hierarchical branching network” theory of  metabolic allometry of West, Brown and Enquist. What value of the scaling coefficient b does this theory predict for basal and maximal metabolic rate? How does this theory explain a decrease in mass-specific metabolic rate with increasing animal size?  What are strengths/advantages of this theory? What are the shortcomings/limitations of this theory?
7. Describe the “allometric cascade” theory of  metabolic allometry of Darveau, Suarez, Andrews and Hochachka. What value of the scaling coefficient b does this theory predict for basal and maximal metabolic rate? How does this theory explain a decrease in mass-specific metabolic rate with increasing animal size?   What are strengths/advantages of this theory? What are the shortcomings/limitations of this theory?
8. Define the metabolic control coefficients. Which physiological processes contribute most to the control of metabolic rate in the resting state (BMR) and in the active state (maximum metabolic rate)?
9. Define metabolism. What is energy metabolism? Define anabolism and catabolism.
10. Formulate the two Laws of Thermodynamics that are relevant to energy metabolism of living systems and explain their relevance.
11. Describe the components of the individual energy budget. What are energy sources and major energy expenditures of an organism?  Explain the central role of ATP in cellular energy metabolism.