Anfíbios possuem uma microbiota cutânea que os protege contra patógenos. Essa proteção se dá pela produção de moléculas antimicrobianas e pela competição por espaço e nutrientes contra patógenos. Alterações na composição da microbiota, causadas por fatores bióticos e abióticos do ambiente e por fatores ecofisiológicos do hospedeiro, podem afetar a resistência dos anfíbios à doenças. Assim, é possível que ambientes artificiais, por conter condições ambientais diferentes dos naturais e por alterarem aspectos ecofisiológicos dos indivíduos, devem modular a microbiota cutânea de animais mantidos e nascidos em cativeiro. Nós avaliamos diferenças inter e intra-populacionais no perfil da comunidade bacteriana de Scinax alcatraz entre três grupos: indivíduos selvagens; indivíduos nascido em cativeiro; e indivíduos mantidos em cativeiro por dois anos. Também verificamos o efeito temporal de ambientes artificiais no perfil da microbiota cutânea entre e dentre indivíduos selvagens mantidos em cativeiro ao longo de 312 dias. Os parâmetros microbiológicos utilizados foram riqueza de morfotipos bacterianos e abundância de colônias bacterianas. As diferenças encontradas entre populações apontam para o ambiente como um importante modulador da microbiota cutânea. No entanto, as diferenças encontradas entre indivíduos de uma mesma população apontam para a importância de aspectos fisiológicos do hospedeiro na modulação. Por fim, a avaliação temporal foi importante para mostrar que tanto aspectos ambientais quanto aspectos ecofisiológicos atuam juntos na modulação da comunidade bacteriana cutânea de anfíbios mantidos em cativeiro / Amphibians harbor a skin microbiota that provides protection against pathogens. This protection happens by production of antimicrobial substances and by competition for space and nutrients against pathogens. Changes in the microbiota composition, caused by biotic and abiotic factors of the environment and ecophysiology factors of the host, may affect disease resistance of amphibians. As artificial environments contain different environmental conditions compared to natural ones and may alter physiological aspects of individuals, it may modulate the cutaneous microbiota of captive animals. Our study evaluated inter- and intra-population differences in the profile of bacterial community of Scinax alcatraz from three distinct groups: wild individuals; individuals born in captivity and individuals kept in captivity for two years. We also investigated the temporal effects of artificial environments on the cutaneous microbiota profile between and within wild individuals kept in captivity over 312 days. Microbiological parameters analyzed were richness of bacterial morphotypes and abundance of bacterial colonies. The differences found between populations show that the environment may be an important modulator of the microbial community. However the differences between individuals within a population demonstrate the importance of physiological aspects of the host for the composition of the microbiota. Finally, the temporal evaluation performed was important to show that both environmental and ecophysiological aspects act together in modulating the cutaneous microbiota community of amphibians kept in captivity

Thermal limits for ectothermic animals displays a picture of the range of body temperatures that is tolerable by individuals before their locomotory capacity is impaired. However, thermal limits are not fixed and specific traits, but labile ones subjected to plastic adjustments and evolutionary change, and also are influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors of organisms, as well as by methodological factors inherent to experimental protocols. Even more, the influences of these factors on thermal limits have been commonly addressed independently in different taxa, and the extent by which multiple factors interact and affect thermal limits within taxa is poorly understood. Thus, the main aim of this work was to conduct a methodological assessment of the Critical Thermal Maximum (CTmax) by studying the influences of different experimental heating rates (ΔT’s), ontogeny, body mass, and the interaction among these factors on this trait. This matter was addressed on larvae of Physalaemus nattereri and Hypsiboas pardalis, two anuran species from the São Paulo State, southeastern Brazil, that differ in their phylogenetic background, ecological and life-history characteristics and inhabit environments with different thermal regimes. First, ΔT’s did affect averages and variances of CTmax in a species-specific manner. In addition, it was found a ΔT-dependent decreasing in CTmax at the end of metamorphosis in tadpoles of P. nattereri, because only the metamorphosing tadpoles exposed to the acute ΔT were more sensitive to high temperature than premetamorphic tadpoles. Finally, body mass and ΔT’s interacted on the CTmax of both species along our experimental design. In P. nattereri, body mass affected CTmax through physiology at the slow ΔT’s, whereas in H. pardalis body mass affected CTmax at the acute ΔT through a methodological artifact driven by higher thermal inertia in the group of large tadpoles. This study revealed that ΔT’s, ontogeny and body mass interact on the CTmax of our studied species, and these interactive effects could not have been elucidated by the independent study of each factor. It also highlights the importance of integrating the factors that influence thermal limits of ectothermic animals, especially in the context of climate change / Os limites térmicos para animais ectotérmicos mostram uma imagem do intervalo de temperaturas corporais que é tolerável pelos indivíduos antes de sua capacidade locomotora ser prejudicada. Porém, os limites térmicos não são características fixas e específicas, mas traços lábeis sujeitos tanto a ajustes plásticos quanto a mudanças evolutivas, e são influenciados por fatores intrínsecos e extrínsecos dos organismos, e também por fatores metodológicos associados aos protocolos experimentais. Ainda mais, as influências desses fatores sobre os limites térmicos têm sido comumente abordadas de forma independente em diferentes espécies, e o grau pelo qual múltiplos fatores interagem e afetam os limites térmicos dentro das espécies é pouco compreendido. Assim, o principal objetivo deste trabalho foi conduzir uma avaliação metodológica da Temperatura Crítica Máxima (CTmax) estudando as influências de diferentes taxas de aquecimento experimental (ΔT’s), ontogenia, massa corpórea e a interação entre esses fatores sobre esta característica fisiológica. Este assunto foi abordado em larvas de Physalaemus nattereri e Hypsiboas pardalis, dois espécies de anfíbios anuros encontrados no Estado de São Paulo, sudeste do Brasil, que diferem em sua origem filogenética, características ecológicas e de história de vida, e também habitam ambientes com diferentes regimes térmicos. Primeiro, foi encontrado que as ΔT’s afetaram tanto os valores médios quanto as variâncias da CTmax em ambas as espécies de maneira específica. Além disso, achou-se uma diminuição em CTmax no final da metamorfose que foi dependente da ΔT em larvas de P. nattereri, dado que nessa espécie só os girinos em metamorfose que foram expostos à ΔT aguda foram mais sensíveis às altas temperaturas do que os girinos premetamórficos. Finalmente, a massa corpórea e as ΔT’s interagiram sobre a CTmax em ambas as espécies ao longo do desenho experimental. Em P. nattereri, o efeito da massa corpórea sobre a CTmax foi fisiológico nas ΔT’s lentas, enquanto que em H. pardalis o efeito da massa corpórea na ΔT aguda foi devido a um artefato metodológico causado por maior inércia térmica no grupo de girinos maiores. Este estudo revelou que as ΔT’s, a ontogenia e a massa corpórea interagem sobre a CTmax das espécies estudadas, e estes efeitos interativos não poderiam ter sido elucidados pelo estudo independente de cada fator. Também é salientada a importância de integrar os fatores que influenciam os limites térmicos dos animais ectotérmicos, especialmente no contexto das mudanças climáticas

Esta tese tem como tema central o conceito de febre comportamental, que tem-se definido como o aumento da temperatura corporal pela efetivação da mudança nas temperaturas preferidas devido ao reconhecimento, por parte do corpo, de uma infecção ou patógeno. O trabalho está composto por três partes. Na Introdução Geral é discutida a febre comportamental em sete pontos fundamentais no entendimento desta resposta dentro da Ecofisiologia, começando pela definição, as pesquisas de laboratório e campo existente até o momento, até as limitações ecológicas dos indivíduos e as implicações do tema na conservação. No capítulo 1, com formato de texto científico, apresentamos a pesquisa na qual estudamos o comportamento e a preferência termal da espécie Proceratophrys boiei em condições experimentais com indivíduos injetados com lipopolisacáridos (LPS), para simular uma infecção, e indivíduos intactos (injetados com salina, grupo controle). Nessa pesquisa consideramos duas alternativas de respostas no comportamento, tal como discutido na introdução geral: a) febre comportamental, que é caracterizada por um aumento da temperatura corporal dos indivíduos pela mudança nas temperaturas preferidas dentro de uma paisagem termal; b) comportamento de doente, que no contexto do desenho experimental seria reconhecido pela diminuição da atividade dos indivíduos. Assim, registramos os seguintes tratamentos durante 24 horas com uma câmara termográfica: 1) indivíduos intactos no gradiente termal desligado, 2) indivíduos intactos no gradiente termal ligado, 3) indivíduos injetados com salina, no gradiente termal ligado 4) indivíduos injetados com LPS no gradiente termal ligado. Para cada um dos tratamentos foi registrada a distância de locomoção e as preferências termais, junto com outros detalhes do comportamento e as preferências termais. A partir de nossos resultados, concluímos que os indivíduos de P. boiei apresentam comportamento de doente como resposta dominante ao ser injetados com LPS, e que as preferências termais destes são consequência do comportamento de doente e não da termorregulação comportamental. Finalmente, a discussão geral explica como o capitulo 1 contribui na discussão de cada um dos sete pontos tratados na introdução geral tentando propor metodologias e estudos mais completos para manter o diálogo entre a fisiologia e a ecologia dos indivíduos no contexto de infecção e doenças / The central theme of this thesis is the concept of behavioral fever, which has been defined as the increase of body temperature by effecting the change in preferred temperatures due to the recognition by the body of an infection or pathogen. The thesis is composed of three parts. In the General Introduction, behavioral fever is presented around seven fundamental points to the understanding of this response within Ecophysiology, starting with the definition, the laboratory and field research until now, to the ecological limitations of individuals and the implications of this theme in conservation. In the first chapter, with scientific text format, we present the research in which we studied the behavior and thermal preference of Proceratophrys boiei species under experimental conditions in individuals injected with lipopolysaccharides (LPS), to simulate an infection, and in intact individuals (injected with Saline, a control group). In this research we considered two alternatives of behavioral responses, as discussed in the General Introduction: a) behavioral fever, which is characterized by an increase in the individuals body temperature by changing the preferred temperatures within a thermal landscape; B) patient behavior, which, in the context of experimental design, would be recognized by the decrease in the activity of individuals. Thus, we recorded the following treatments for 24 hours with a thermographic camera: 1) intact individuals in the thermal gradient switched off, 2) intact individuals in the connected thermal gradient, 3) individuals injected with saline, in the bound thermal gradient 4) individuals injected with LPS in the thermal gradient on. For each of the treatments it was recorded the locomotion distance and the thermal preferences, along with other details of the behavior and the thermal preferences. From our results, we conclude that the individuals of P. boiei present a patient\'s behavior as a dominant response when injected with LPS and their thermal preferences are a consequence of patient behavior and not behavioral thermoregulation. Finally, the general discussion explains how chapter 1 contributes to the discussion of each of the seven points highlighted in the general introduction attempting to propose a complete methodology and studies to maintain the dialogue between the physiology and the ecology of individuals in the context of infection and disease

Os limites geográficos que marcam o risco de congelamento são determinantes na biodiversidade de anfíbios. Os mecanismos fisiológicos envolvidos na preparação e reação aos eventos de temperatura extrema são específicos e dependem da previsibilidade e repetitividade destes eventos. Na América do Sul, existem regiões com risco de congelamento para os anfíbios, contudo pouco se conhece da tolerância ao congelamento em espécies endêmicas deste continente. O doutorado foi elaborado em locais com reportes de congelamento na Argentina e o Brasil, usando como modelo as espécies Alsodes gargola, Bokermanohyla gouveai, Dendrosophus minutus, D. microps, Hypsiboas latistriatus, H. polytaenius, Melanophryniscus moreirae, Pleurodema bufoninum, Ologygon brieni, Scinax duartei e S. hayii, avaliando exposição potencial ao congelamento em refúgios termais, sobrevivência a temperatura congelante, mudanças em moléculas com função crioprotetora (colesterol, glicose, proteínas, triglicérides, ureia) e crescimento de gelo corporal. Dentro deste contexto, a minha hipótese geral foi que existem anfíbios que sobrevivem ao congelamento na América do sul e que estas espécies presentam mecanismos de resposta fisiológica que deveriam variar entre espécies em um evento de congelamento controlado. No decorrer do doutorado esta hipótese foi corroborada, encontrando sobrevivência a temperatura congelantes nas especies A. gargola, B. gouveai, D. microps, H. latistriatus, H. polytaenius, M. moreirae, P. bufoninum, S. duartei e S. hayii, sendo que existe uma amplia variedade de estratégias fisiológicas para fazer frente ás baixas temperaturas. Entre as espécies anteriormente reportadas, definiu-se que D. microps, H. polytaenius, P. bufoninum, S. duartei e S. hayii, são tolerantes ao congelamento devido a que apresentarem tanto acumulo de crioprotectores como crescimento de gelo corporal durante a exposição a baixas temperaturas. Por outro lado usando analises filogenéticos, conseguiu-se reforçar a hipóteses que a tolerância ao congelamento é convergente ao longo da historia evolutiva dos anfíbios, acontecendo independentemente em vários clados. As novas descobertas sobre a riqueza fisiologia no nível de adaptações frente ao congelamento em América do Sul são apenas pequenas amostras do que potencialmente pode ser achada pensando na biodiversidade existente neste continente, logo a presente tese, é só um incentivo para futuros trabalho na área / The geographical boundaries that mark the risk of freezing are determinants for amphibian biodiversity. The physiological mechanisms involved in the preparation and reaction to extreme temperature events are specific and depend on the predictability and repeatability of these events. In South America, there are regions with freezing risk for amphibians, however little is known about the freezing tolerance in endemic species to this continent. The present doctoral dissertation was prepared in places with freezing reports in Argentina and Brazil, using as biological models the species Alsodes gargola, Bokermanohyla gouveai, Dendrosophus minutus, D. microps, Hypsiboas latistriatus, H. polytaenius, Melanophryniscus moreirae, Pleurodema bufoninum, Ologygon brieni, Scinax duartei and S. hayii, evaluating potential exposure to freezing in thermal refuges, survival to freezing temperature, changes in cryoprotectant molecules (cholesterol, glucose, proteins, triglycerides, urea) and body ice growth. Within this context, my general hypothesis was that there are amphibians that survive freezing in South America and that these species present physiological mechanisms that should vary among species in a controlled freezing event. In the course of my doctorate, this hypothesis was confirmed, finding survival to freezing temperature in the species A. gargola, B. gouveai, D. microps, H. latistriatus, H. polytaenius, M. moreirae, P. bufoninum, S. duartei and S. hayii, being a wide variety of physiological strategies to protect the animals to the low temperatures. Among the previously reported species, D. microps, H. polytaenius, P. bufoninum, S. duartei, S. hayii, were defined as freezing tolerant because they exhibit both accumulation of cryoprotectants and body ice growth during freeze exposure. On the other hand using phylogenetic analyzes, it was possible to reinforce the hypotheses that the freezing tolerance strategy is convergent throughout the evolutionary history of the amphibians, happening independently in several clades. The new findings about physiological richness at the level of adaptations to freezing in South America are only small samples of what can be found within the biodiversity existing on this continent, so the present thesis is only an incentive for future work in the area

No description available.

Climate change is expected to impact species by altering infectious disease outcomes, modifying community composition, and causing species to shift their phenology, body sizes and range distributions. However, the outcomes of these impacts are often controversial; for example, scientists have debated whether climate change will exacerbate emerging infectious disease and which species are at greatest risk to advance their phenology. There reason for these controversies may be that climate change is impacting diverse processes across a wide range of ecological scales, as the interplay between fine-scale processes and broad-scale dynamics can often cause unpredictable changes to the biosphere. Therefore, it is important to consider how ecological processes change across spatial, temporal and allometric scales in order to understand the impacts of climate change. For example, if community composition controls disease distributions at small spatial scales while abiotic factors do so at large, regional scales, studies conducted at a single spatial scale may misestimate the impacts of climate change on biodiversity. Because small organisms acclimate quickly, they may track their phenology to climatic factors over shorter temporal scales than large organisms. In addition, small organisms have wider thermal breadths, or temperature ranges where performance is relatively strong, than large organisms. This may cause cold-adapted hosts to face performance gaps with parasites at warmer temperatures than those where host or parasite performance peaks, putting them at risk when the climate warms. I began my dissertation work by examining how spatial scale modulates the observed effects of human modifications to ecological processes. Humans are altering the distribution of species by changing the climate and disrupting biotic interactions and dispersal. A fundamental hypothesis in spatial ecology suggests that these effects are scale-dependent; biotic interactions should shape distributions at local scales while climate should control them at regional scales. Thus, common single-scale analyses might be unable to accurately estimate the impacts of anthropogenic modifications on biodiversity and the environment because they may miss effects at other scales. However, the large-scale datasets and computing power necessary to test scale hypotheses have not been available until recently. I conducted a cross-continental, cross-scale (almost five orders of magnitude) analysis of the influence of biotic, abiotic, and dispersal processes on the distribution of three emerging pathogens: the amphibian chytrid fungus implicated in worldwide amphibian declines, and West Nile virus and the bacterium that causes Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi), which are responsible for ongoing human health crises. For all three pathogens, biotic factors were only significant predictors of distributions at local scales (~102-103 km2), whereas climate factors and a proxy for dispersal limitations were almost always only significant at relatively larger, regional scales (>104 km2). Spatial autocorrelation analyses revealed that biotic factors were relatively more variable at smaller scales whereas climatic factors were more variable at larger scales, consistent with the prediction that factors should be important at the scales they vary the most. Finally, no single scale could detect the importance of all three categories of processes. My results highlight that common, single-scale analyses can misrepresent the true impact of anthropogenic modifications on biodiversity and the environment. Although it is important to understand how ecological processes affect patterns across scales, a critical step towards understanding the ecological impacts of climate change is to develop cross-scale frameworks that can predict these patterns. Thus, I proceeded to develop a framework to help understand how species are altering their phenology, or the timing of seasonal activities, using data collected across spatial and temporal scales. Phenological shifts are concerning because they can cause species declines by creating asynchronies or “mismatches” in plant–pollinator, plant–herbivore, and host–parasite interactions. Although advancements in the phenology of plants and animals have been widely reported and synthesized, several open knowledge gaps of critical concern have persisted. First, although many phenological studies and syntheses assume climate change as an important driver of phenological shifts, many do so without explicitly testing for any effect of climate, and among those that have, standardized climate data are rarely used. As a consequence, it remains unclear which climatic variables are driving shifts in phenology and whether geographical heterogeneity in these variables across regional scales has impacted their predictive power to detect ecological trends. Second, one of the chief concerns about species shifting the timing of their phenologies is the possibly of ecological mismatches, or asynchrony in the timing of species interactions, especially in mutualisms. I hypothesized that across regional scales, factors driving seasonality would also drive phenological shifts. I also hypothesized that small species might shift their phenology faster than large organisms because they acclimate to new conditions more easily. I addressed these questions by synthesizing 1,011 published time series of animal phenology and historic global climate data using a meta-analytical framework. I found that while temperature drives phenological responses at high latitudes, low-latitude shifts are driven by precipitation. Small body size and ectothermy were associated with strong phenological shifts, suggesting emerging asynchrony between hosts and parasites and predators and prey. Finally, I looked at how variation across allometric scales might impact host-parasite interactions in the context of changing temperatures. Small organisms have larger performance breadths, or temperature ranges where performance is relatively high, than large organisms, and thus pathogens should typically have broader performance breadths than hosts. Therefore, the performance gap between pathogens and cold- and warm-adapted hosts should occur at relatively warm and cold temperatures, respectively. To test this hypothesis, which I coin the thermal mismatch hypothesis, we quantified the temperature-dependent susceptibility of “cold-“ and “warm-adapted” amphibian species (Atelopus zeteki, Osteopilus septentrionalis, and Anaxyrus terrestris) to the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) using laboratory experiments and field prevalence estimates from 4,775 host populations. In both the laboratory and field, I found that peak susceptibility for cold- and warm-adapted hosts occurred at relatively warm and cool temperatures, respectively, providing support for the thermal mismatch hypothesis. Finally, I found that the temperature-dependent A. zeteki mortality patterns observed in our experiment accurately predicted historic extinctions of Atelopus spp., suggesting that climate change contributed to the extinctions. My results suggest that as climate change shifts hosts away from their optimal temperatures, the probability of infectious disease outbreaks may increase, but the effect will depend on the host species and the direction of the climate shift. My findings partly explain the tremendous variation in species’ responses to climate change. Based on the results of my dissertation, I conclude that climate change has diverse effects on ecology across scales. Biotic interactions control disease distributions at small, local spatial scales while abiotic factors do at large scales, suggesting that climate change may impact species distributions differently at different scales. Across temporal scales, differences in acclimation rates could be affecting which species are more likely to shift their phenology. Finally, across allometric scales, differences in thermal breadths between individuals of different body sizes could alter host-parasite interactions by causing hosts to be susceptible to disease even at conditions far from where parasites perform best. Thus, I believe that my dissertation has contributed to what we understand about how scale relates to disease and biodiversity declines in the context of climate change.

A major goal of ecology and evolutionary biology is to explain patterns of species richness among clades. Differences in rates of net diversification (speciation minus extinction over time) may often explain these patterns, but the factors that drive variation in diversification rates remain uncertain. Three important candidates are climatic niche position (e.g., whether clades are primarily temperate or tropical), rates of climatic niche change among species within clades, and microhabitat (e.g., aquatic, terrestrial, arboreal). The first two factors have been tested separately in several studies, but the relative importance of all three is largely unknown. Here we explore the correlates of diversification among families of frogs, which collectively represent approximate to 88% of amphibian species. We assemble and analyze data on phylogeny, climate, and microhabitat for thousands of species. We find that the best-fitting phylogenetic multiple regression model includes all three types of variables: microhabitat, rates of climatic niche change, and climatic niche position. This model explains 67% of the variation in diversification rates among frog families, with arboreal microhabitat explaining approximate to 31%, niche rates approximate to 25%, and climatic niche position approximate to 11%. Surprisingly, we show that microhabitat can have a much stronger influence on diversification than climatic niche position or rates of climatic niche change.

No description available.

The Tropical Andes make up Earth's most species-rich biodiversity hotspot for both animals and plants. Nevertheless, the ecological and evolutionary processes underlying this extraordinary richness remain uncertain. Here, we examine the processes that generate high richness in the Tropical Andes relative to other regions in South America and across different elevations within the Andes, using frogs as a model system. We combine distributional data, a newly generated time-calibrated phylogeny for 2,318 frog species, and phylogenetic comparative methods to test the relative importance of diversification rates and colonization times for explaining Andean diversity at different scales. At larger scales (among regions and families), we find that faster diversification rates in Andean clades most likely explain high Andean richness. In contrast, at smaller temporal and spatial scales (within family-level clades within the Andes), diversification rates rarely explain richness patterns. Instead, we show that colonization times are important for shaping elevational richness patterns within the Andes, with more species found in habitats colonized earlier. We suggest that these scale-dependent patterns might apply to many other richness gradients. Recognition of this scale dependence may help to reconcile conflicting results among studies of richness patterns across habitats, regions, and organisms.

The characteristics of the ion exchange mechanisms which regulate volume and pH in fish and amphibian erythrocytes were investigated and compared. Experiments were carried out under steady state conditions and also following adrenergic stimulation both in vivo and in vitro. Under steady state conditions, a decrease in extracellular pH caused an increase in the volume of rainbow trout erythrocytes, and a decrease in the intracellular pH. These pH-induced volume changes were mainly associated with movements of chloride across the chloride/bicarbonate exchange pathway. The sodium/proton exchange mechanism is quiescent at all pH's studied under steady state conditions. Beta adrenergic stimulation of rainbow trout erythrocytes promoted cell swelling and proton extrusion from the erythrocytes. Amiloride inhibited both the volume and pH changes associated with adrenergic stimulation indicating that this response is associated with an increase in the activity of the sodium/proton exchange mechanism on the erythrocyte membrane. The adrenergic swelling and pH responses are enhanced by a decrease in extracellular pH. An increase in bicarbonate concentration reduces the adrenergic pH response, but it is still significant even at 10 mM bicarbonate. DIDS markedly enhanced the beta adrenergic effect on the erythrocyte pH, but abolished the increase in erythrocyte volume. The adrenergic response was independent of temperature between 10 and 18°C. These results support a loosely coupled sodium/proton and chloride/bicarbonate exchange model for the adrenergic response in rainbow trout erythrocytes. The increases in erythrocyte pH and volume following adrenergic stimulation are associated with increases in the haemoglobin:oxygen affinity. The oxygen carrying capacity of the blood is, therefore, increased following adrenergic stimulation in rainbow trout. Carbon dioxide excretion, however, was not significantly affected by adrenergic stimulation. The functional significance of the adrenergic response of fish erythrocytes may be to offset the effects of the Root shift on the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood during acute changes in extracellular pH. In contrast to fish erythrocytes, the sodium/proton exchange mechanism in amphibian erythrocytes is active under steady state conditions. In the presence of bicarbonate movements, this exchange significantly affects the erythrocyte volume, but not the erythrocyte pH. Similar to fish erythrocytes, protons are passively distributed in amphibian erythrocytes under steady state conditions and in Donnan equilibrium with chloride ions. The erythrocyte volume also increases with decreases in extracellular pH as in fish erythrocytes, due to changes in the chloride distribution across the erythrocyte membrane. Adrenergic stimulation does not affect the volume or pH of amphibian erythrocytes either in vivo or in vitro. These animals, therefore, do not appear to regulate erythrocyte pH adrenergically. Amphibians are able to efficiently utilize oxygen stores via both central and peripheral shunting. In addition, the blood of these animals does not have a Root shift. Adrenergic regulation of erythrocyte pH in order to enhance oxygen transport during fluctuations in ambient and internal gas tensions, therefore, is probably less important than it would be in fish. / Science, Faculty of / Zoology, Department of / Graduate