Week 4: Exercise in Hypoxia — High Altitude and Diving

This week explores oxygen delivery in hypoxic conditions through two case studies: high-altitude exercise and acute hypoxia in diving animals.

Lectures

• Lecture 9: Exercise Performance and Oxygen Delivery at High Altitude (31 slides) Reduced barometric pressure and inspired P_O2, acute and chronic responses across the oxygen supply cascade, exercise performance decrements, acclimatization, and high-altitude human and animal adaptations.

• Lecture 10: Adaptations for Oxygen Delivery and Acute Hypoxia in Diving (33 slides) Countercurrent and crosscurrent gas exchange, bar-headed goose adaptations, the dive response in mammals and birds, oxygen stores, bradycardia, peripheral vasoconstriction, and metabolic adaptations to acute hypoxia.

• Week 4 Friday Review and Discussion (11 slides) Background-reading Q&A on ectotherm metabolic acidosis and tuna regional endothermy, graphical Fick principle for endotherms vs ectotherms, convergent evolution examples, and a practice problem on arterial O₂ content in diving Weddell seals.