Life-history characteristics influence physiological strategies to cope with hypoxia in Himalayan birds.

ABSTRACT: Hypobaric hypoxia at high elevation represents an important physiological stressor for montane organisms, but optimal physiological strategies to cope with hypoxia may vary among species with different life histories. Montane birds exhibit a range of migration patterns; elevational migrants breed at high elevations but winter at low elevations or migrate further south, while high-elevation residents inhabit the same elevation throughout the year. Optimal physiological strategies to cope with hypoxia might therefore differ between species that exhibit these two migratory patterns, because they differ in the amount time spent at high elevation. We examined physiological parameters associated with blood-oxygen transport (haemoglobin concentration and haematocrit, i.e. the proportion of red bl

SUBMITTER: Barve S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5136601 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature