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Lays out the principles of mechanistic comparative physiology in an ecological and evolutionary context, covering topics including NMR spectroscopy and molecular biology, evolution and adaptation, phylogenetically-based analytical techniques and more.
1. The Goals and Scope of this Volume
2. Cellular Metabolism, Regulation and Homeostasis
3. Influence of Oxygen Availability
4. The Diving Response and Its Evolution
5. Human Hypoxia Tolerance
6. Water-Solute Adaptations: The Evolution and Regulation of the Internal Milieu
7. Temperature
"Noting that "an underlying unity in biochemical design persists in the face of a remarkable degree of adaptive diversification in biochemical structures and processes," Hochachka (zoology, radiology, and sports medicine, U. of British Columbia, Canada) and Somero (director, Stanford U.'s Hopkins Marine Station) explain the evolutionary and genetic mechanisms by which organisms' biochemical systems have adapted so as to exploit a huge range of ecological niches on the land and in the sea. They review and analyzing the scientific literature that has appeared in the past 15 years. They come to three main conclusions about the adaptive process: that it is highly conservative and preserves biochemical unity, that the time available to an organism to fabricate and adaptive response governs strongly the types of materials that can be exploited, and that the organizational complexity of an organism create regulatory constraints not found in less complex organisms."
– SciTech Book News
