A primer on respiratory physiology

Abstract

According to the principle ‘before you can do what you want to do, you always have to do something else’, this chapter first delves into the basics of respiratory physiology. It begins with summarizing the physical gas laws and their physiological applications to the core process of respiration: diffusion. The chapter finally arrives at introducing the different gas exchange models that can be observed in the various lineages of animals and the basics of ventilatory mechanics. Equipped with this knowledge, it is hoped that the reader will better understand the functional and evolutionary discussions of the respiratory faculties in the following chapters.