milieuphysiologie

Milieuphysiologie is a branch of physiology that studies how organisms interact with their environment and how environmental conditions shape physiological function. The field examines how abiotic factors such as temperature, humidity, salinity, oxygen availability, light, pH, and pollutants influence metabolism, homeostasis, growth, reproduction, and survival. It explores how organisms sense environmental cues, regulate internal states, and adjust physiology through acclimation, acclimatization, and adaptation.

Scope and methods: Research covers thermoregulation, osmoregulation, respiration, energy balance, and stress responses to environmental stressors. It integrates perspectives from physiology, ecology, and biophysics to link organismal performance to habitat and climate. Studies span from cellular and molecular levels to whole-organism and ecosystem scales (ecophysiology).

Techniques include field measurements of environmental variables, laboratory experiments in climate chambers, respirometry, calorimetry, hormone and gene expression analyses, and computational modelling. Data integration often requires interdisciplinary collaboration.

Organisms studied range from microorganisms and plants to animals, including humans in extreme-environment contexts. Subfields include ecophysiology, environmental physiology, high-altitude physiology, desert and aquatic physiology, cold and heat adaptation, and space physiology.

Applications are diverse: improving crop tolerance to drought and temperature extremes, predicting wildlife responses to climate change, informing occupational health and design of built environments, and contributing to space biology and environmental medicine. Milieuphysiologie emphasizes the limits of tolerance and the mechanisms underlying resilience in changing environments.