Office: SSB 6157, 291-5640, ckennedy@sfu.ca

The course is designed for the advanced undergraduate student with some basic understanding of biochemistry and general physiology (BISC 305 or equivalent).

The course deals with the various physiological adaptations that animals utilize in order to survive. These adaptations will be examined at several levels of organization from the molecular and biochemical to the function of organ systems and behavior. Examples will be drawn from a wide variety of animals, from wherever the problem can be most conveniently studied.

I. Introduction to the basic concepts of environmental physiology and adaptive responses.

II. Oxygen. Aquatic and aerial respiration, transport systems, high altitude, diving, anaerobiosis.

III. Temperature. Ectotherms and endotherms, freezing resistance, temperature and pH, membranes and enzymes, hibernation.

IV. Water and ions. Properties of water, aquatic regulation of intra- and extracellular water and solutes, hyperosmotic and hypoosmotic regulation, terrestrial regulation, reinvasion of water: aquatic mammals.

V. Hydrostatic pressure and adaptations to the deep sea. Membrane-based functions, protein function and structure, nucleic acids, capacity adaptations, deep-sea hydrothermal vents.

There is no required textbook for the course.

Midterm exam 40%

Final exam 60%