1) You begin your expedition at the mouth of the Brisbane River at sea level (barometric pressure = 760 mmHg). The temperature is 20^oC and the relative humidity is 78%. What is the partial pressure of nitrogen in the air?

2) You then travel upstream, following the path of the river until you reach its source near Kingaroy, elevation 500m (barometric pressure = 716 mmHg) The temperature is 30^oC and the relative humidity is 54%. What is the tension of oxygen in the river water?

3) You then begin the terrestrial phase of the expedition, leaving the river and hiking into Carnorvarn National Park and finally reaching Consuelo Peak (elevation 1219m, barometric pressure = 656 mmHg). The temperature is 15^oC and the relative humidity is 33%. What is the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the air at this location?

4) You then descend to Lake Galilee, one of the few areas of wetlands in central Queensland. The elevation is 275m (barometric pressure = 736 mmHg), the temperature is 20^oC and the relative humidity is 40%. What is the oxygen content (ml O2/liter water) of the lake water?

5) Suppose that you are an ichthyologist studying the Large Mouth Bass population of Lake Mattamuskeet, North Carolina’s largest lake. The lake is at sea level (barometric pressure = 760 mmHg), the temperature is 15^oC, and the relative humidity is 100%. If the oxygen content of the water is 7.0 ml O2/l H2O and the oxygen extraction of the bass is 80% (i.e., 80% of the oxygen is removed from the water as it passes over the gills), what is the tension (in mmHg) of oxygen in the water that exits the gill chambers?

Write the letter of the correct answer in the blank on the left side of the page.

Suppose that you are SCUBA diving on one of the wrecks off the North Carolina coast. You take on the dive four small bottles and collect samples of seawater at depths of 40, 30, 20, and 10 meters.

6) _____ You predict that the tension of oxygen in the water from 10 meters would be (a. greater than; b. less than; c. equal to) the tension of oxygen in the water from 40 meters.

7) _____You predict that the oxygen content of the water from 10 meters would be (a. greater than; b. less than; c. equal to) the oxygen content of the water from 40 meters.

The flow of blood through a portion of an unusual circulatory system is illustrated below. You are observing the system from the side (i.e., the pipe labeled B is directly above the second pipe). Fill in the blanks with the letter identifying the correct answer. The fluid has viscosity (i.e., it is not an ideal fluid).

8) The highest velocity would be found at point _____

9) The lowest velocity would be found at point _____

10) _____ The wall tension at point B is (a. greater than; b. less than; c. equal to) that at point A.

11) _____ The pressure at point C would be (a. greater than; b. less than; c. equal to) that at point D.

12) _____ The velocity at point B would be (a. greater than; b. less than; c. equal to) that at point D.

13) _____ If no flow was occurring in the system, the pressure at point D would be (a. greater than; b. less than; c. equal to) that at point B.

14) _____ Both terrestrial animals and terrestrial plants face the same problem of water loss during the process of obtaining oxygen (animals) and carbon dioxide (plants) from the surrounding air. Based on your knowledge of the composition of atmospheric air, you would predict that the problem of water loss for a plant would be (a. greater than; b. less than; c. equal to) the problem of water loss for an animal.

15) _____ Suppose that there is a mutation that increases the colloidal osmotic pressure of the blood. If other factors are unchanged, the ratio of bulk filtration to reabsorption in a typical capillary bed would be expected to (a. increase; b. decrease; c. remain unchanged), compared with an animal lacking the mutation.

16) _____ The lowest pressure in a mammalian circulatory system would be found in the (a. aorta; b. capillaries; c. veins; d. vena cava.)

17) _____ Suppose that you trap a small volume of air (30% relative humidity) in a plastic bag in your kitchen. If you seal the bag tightly so that no gas or water vapor could enter or exit and then place the bag in your oven, you predict that the relative humidity of air in the bag would (a. increase; b. decrease; c. be unchanged) as the air in the bag is heated.

18) _____ Adding carbon dioxide to the inhaled air of a mammal or bird results in (a. an increase; b. a decrease; c. no change) in pulmonary ventilation.

Brine Shrimp (genus Artemia) are typically found living in highly saline inland lakes, but can in fact tolerate a range of salinities. Suppose that you are comparing two populations of Artemia. One population inhabits a large lake with salinities that average 15 parts per thousand. Another population inhabits a small pond adjacent to the lake with a salinity of 40 parts per thousand. The lake and the pond are at the same temperature and elevation and thus are at equilibrium with the same air.

19) _____ The dissolved oxygen available to the population in the pond would be (a. greater than; b. less than; c. equal to) the oxygen available to the population in the lake.

20) _____ The tension of oxygen in the pond would be (a. greater than; b less than; c. equal to) the tension of oxygen in the lake.

21) _____ The tension of nitrogen in the tracheal system of an insect during the fluttering phase of cyclic respiration (a. decreases; b. increases; c. is relatively constant).

Oxygen-hemoglobin dissociation curves (a, b, & c) are graphed below. Fill in the blank with the letter indicating the correct curve or with the correct value or word for questions 22-34.

If curve b represents a mammalian blood sample tested at body temperature, curve 22) _____ would be obtained when the
blood sample is tested at 25 ºC.

If curve b is for myoglobin of a squirrel, curve 23) _____ is most likely for its blood.

If curve b is for a sample of blood after leaving the lungs, curve 24) ____ would be the blood after leaving working muscle.

The approximate P50 for curve a is 25) _____

If curve b represents a blood sample removed from an artery, curve 26) ____ would be the blood after carbon dioxide has been bubbled through it. This change in affinity is referred to as 27)__________________________. A more extreme example of this phenomenon is observed in fish blood and is referred to as 28) ____________________________.

If curve b is a blood sample at pH 7.0, curve 29) ____ represents the blood sample after the pH has been increased.

If curve b represents the curve of a bottlenose dolphin, curve 30) ____ represents the curve of a lion of the same body mass.

Suppose that curve b is for blood donated to a blood bank. Over time there is a gradual decrease in the level of 2,3 – diphosphoglycerate and the curve would be expected to shift toward the position of curve 31) ____.

The endangered vicuña is a wild South American relative of the camel that lives in the high alpine areas of the Andes. If curve b is for its blood, curve 32) ____ would be for the blood of a camel of the same body mass at sea level.

Suppose that you measured the oxygen-hemoglobin dissociation curves for a shrew, a squirrel and a sheep. Curve 33) ____ would most likely be the curve of the shrew.

If curve b represents the blood of a female elephant, curve 34) ____ is likely the curve of the blood of her fetus.

35) _____ At a given carbon dioxide tension, deoxygenated blood would be expected to have (a. a larger; b. a smaller; c. the same) carbon dioxide content as oxygenated blood.

36) _____ The highest tension of oxygen in the tracheal system of an insect undergoing cyclic respiration would be observed at the end of the (a. fluttering phase; b. closed phase; c. open phase).

37) _____ Suppose that you are a biochemist who is extending Scholander’s experiments on facilitated diffusion in myoglobin. You have designed a biochemical approach that allows you to cause two myoglobin molecules to combine to form a single molecule called a dimer. You would most likely find that the diffusion ratio (O2/N2) of experiments conducted with the dimer would be (a. greater than; b. less than; c. equal to) experiments conducted with the normal myoglobin molecule (other factors are held constant).

38) _____ The tension of oxygen in the tracheal system of an insect undergoing cyclic respiration decreases during the (a. open; b. closed; c. fluttering) phase.

39) _____ At the normal pH of mammalian blood, most of the carbon dioxide is present in the form of (a. carbonic acid; b. bicarbonate ion; c. carbonate ion).

40) _____ Based on your knowledge of the mechanical work of breathing, you would predict that a galloping mammal with a stride frequency of 50 min-1 is likely to have a ventilation frequency of (a. 40 min-1 ; b. 50 min-1 ; c. 60 min-1)

Suppose that you are conducting an experiment examining respiration in an ostrich. Given its large size, you can implant various probes that allow you to remove small samples of the air from various locations in the respiratory system, to measure flow rates, and to determine the direction of airflow in the respiratory system.

41) _____ The tension of oxygen in the air removed from one of the posterior (caudal) air sacs would be (a. greater than; b. less than; c. equal to) the tension of oxygen in the air from one of the anterior (cranial) air sacs.

42) _____ If you injected a small amount of a tracer gas into the anterior air sacs, you would detect the tracer gas on the next expiration (a. in the posterior air sacs; b. in the lungs; c. in the exhaled air).

43) _____ If you injected a small amount of a tracer gas into the mouth during inhalation, you would likely see it appear primarily in the exhaled air (a. during the first exhalation following the injection; b. during the second exhalation following the injection; c. during the third exhalation following the injection).

Fill in the blank with the correct word or words.

A special advantage is gained by an arrangement that makes the stream of water flowing over the gill and the stream of blood running within the gill flow in opposite directions to each other. This we call 44)_________________________________________________

The dense populations of organisms found near hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean ultimately depend on chemical energy, specifically the oxidation of 45) __________________________rather than on light from the sun.

The bubble-like shape and high curvature of the alveoli of the lung mean that the surface tension of the moist inner surface tends to make the alveoli collapse. This tendency is minimized by the presence on the inner surface of the alveoli of substances called 46) ___________________________________ that greatly reduce the surface tension.

When carbon dioxide dissolves in water, the initial hydration of the carbon dioxide molecule to form 47)____________________________ is a relatively slow process. An enzyme called
48)________________________________ which is found in high concentration in the blood cells, accelerates this step in the process.

The flow of fluids is strange because it exists in two radically different regimes with a sharp transition between the two. In 49) ______________________________________ the fluid particles move in a highly chaotic and irregular manner, even though the overall fluid movement is on average in a given direction. One can determine which regime will be predominant, based on a dimensionless index called 50)_____________________________________ which represents a measure of the ratio of inertial to
viscous forces.