Respiratory Metabolism

Abstract

The introduction of habitat-templet thinking (Southwood 1977; Greenslade 1983) dramatically changed the viewpoint of ecologists with regard to the life history strategies of living organisms. Thereafter, adaptive strategies have been viewed as the outcome of various co-adapted features which can be exemplified not only on demographic but also on physiological and behavioural grounds (e.g. Siepel 1994). In this chapter, the focus is on the respiratory activity of Mediterranean arthropods. Concern with respiratory activity stems from the fact that respiration is the most important path of energy loss. Respirometry can therefore provide a measure of the rate at which animals use their resources to cope with environmental constraints (Peters 1983). The respiratory metabolism of arthropods has been used not only to determine their energy budgets (e.g. Humphreys 1979; Turner 1983) but also to elucidate various aspects of adaptation to cold (e.g. Block 1977, 1979; Sømme 1995), to estimate other parameters of biological activity and demography (Lebrun and van Ruymbeke 1971; Stamou 1986b), and to correlate respiratory activity with changing temperature and humidity (e.g. Testerink 1983). Thus, merging the various aspects of an arthropod’s respiratory activity makes it possible to generate important ecological insights into the animal’s adaptive strategies.