Question

An alien from another planet came to earth for a vacation. In comparison to Earth’s high atmospheric oxygen levels, the alien’s home planet has low atmospheric oxygen levels. Therefore, the alien’s body works best when there are low levels of oxygen in its blood.

On its home planet, the alien’s normal breathing rate brings in the right amount of oxygen to maintain its low oxygen blood levels. Luckily, the alien’s physiology includes the ability to regulate itself through homeostasis and the alien’s body will adjust to living in the higher atmospheric oxygen levels on Earth.

How will negative feedback adjust the alien’s breathing rate on Earth so that the alien will maintain its low oxygen blood levels – that is, will the alien’s breathing rate increase or decrease?

ALSO - explain your answer.

Answer 1

The breathing rate will decrease.

The alien is habituated to low oxygen levels. Once it is shifted to an environment with high oxygen, its normal breathing rate would deliver a high amount of oxygen. In order to adjust the oxygen levels, its breathing rate should decrease. Breathing rate is the rate at which an organism breathes, i.e, the number of times an organism breathes per minute.

The breathing rate is directly proportional to the amount of oxygen the organism receives per minute and the amount of carbon dioxide it exhales.

Higher the breathing rate, the higher the delivery of oxygen to the blood.

Hence the alien should decrease its breathing rate to reduce the amount of oxygen delivered to its blood per minute that would equal the amount of oxygen it used to inhale in its native environment.