Support is requested for a full day symposium (morning and afternoon sessions on the same day) entitled "Current perspectives on the evolution, ecology, and comparative physiology of bimodal breathing" to be held at the annual meeting of the American Society of Zoologists, December 27-30, 1991, in Atlanta, Georgia. The purpose of the symposium is to bring together an international group of both established and young investigators in order to 1) highlight the advances made in understanding bimodally breathing organisms both as the extant link in the evolutionary process by which animals invaded the terrestrial habitat and as unique model systems for elucidating basic physiological and biochemical mechanisms of adaptation, 2) define the important areas for future research, and 3) to promote interdisciplinary and international collaboration in future research efforts. The topics to be covered in the program are interdisciplinary by design: including physical, evolutionary, ecological, morphological, developmental, physiological, and biochemical factors that affect bimodally breathing organisms. The speakers represent an international assemblage of both established and emerging investigators within the various fields of study concerning bimodal breathing. A wide range of taxonomic groups will be featured in the presentations, bringing together an array of different organisms under a single theme and underscoring the prevelance and importance of biodiversity in this field of study. Proceedings of the symposium will be published in the American Zoologist, and it will comprise the first and only reference to treat bimodal breathing as a complex, integrated process.//
