Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Published May 29, 2019 | 17:01 EDT (Brief from the Royal Society)
By actively regulating the pH of red blood cells, bony fishes can control how oxygen binds to haemoglobin. They also use an enzyme to promote oxygen unloading in their tissues. This mechanism means the hearts of Atlantic salmon need to pump less blood when the animals are swimming – which may enable the spawning migrations of all salmon species, and protect against rising river temperatures.

Lead author: Till Harter, University of British Columbia –