Allometric scaling of heat and water exchanges in the mammals' lung

Abstract

Mammals have a high metabolism that produces heat proportionally to the power 3/4 of their mass at rest. Any excess of heat has to be dissipated in the surrounding environment to prevent overheating. Most of that dissipation occurs through the skin, but the efficiency of that mechanism decreases with the animal's mass. The role of the other mechanisms for dissipating heat is then raised, more particularly the one linked to the lung that forms a much larger surface area than the skin. The dissipation occurring in the lung is however often neglected, even though there exists no real knowledge of its dynamics, hidden by the complexity of the organ's geometry and of the physics of the exchanges. Here we show, based on an original and analytical model of the exchanges in the lung, that all mammals, independently of their mass, dissipate through their lung the same proportion of the heat they produced, about 6-7 %. We found that the heat dissipation in mammals' lung is driven by a number, universal among mammals, that arises from the dynamics of the temperature of the bronchial mucosa. We propose a scenario to explain how evolution might have tuned the lung for heat exchanges. Furthermore, our analysis allows to define the pulmonary heat and water diffusive capacities. We show in the human case that these capacities follow closely the oxygen consumption. Our work lays the foundations for more detailed analysis of the heat exchanges occurring in the lung. Future studies should focus on refining our understanding of the universal number identified. In an ecological framework, our analysis paves the way to a better understanding of the mammals' strategies for thermoregulation and of the effect of warming environments on mammals' metabolism.