Advances in Comparative and Environmental Physiology provides comprehensive, integrated reviews giving sound, critical, and provocative summaries of our present knowledge in environmental and comparative physiology, from the molecular to the organismic level. The field has now gained the international status it deserves and the organization of a series devoted to it is very timely in view of its actual rapid development. Biologists, physiologists, and biochemists, independently of their basic scientific orientation, will find this new series of major interest.

1 Mammalian Hibernation: An Escape from the Cold.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Ecological Significance of Mammalian Hibernation.- 3 Organ System and Organ/Tissue Adaptations.- 4 Cellular, Subcellular, and Membrane Adaptations.- 5 Antimetabolic Peptides, the "Hibernation Induction Trigger", and the Opioids.- References.- 2 Water Vapor Absorption by Terrestrial Organisms.- 1 Introduction.- 2 General Features of Absorption Systems: Sites, Structures, and Mechanisms.- 3 Functional Classification of Absorption Mechanisms.- 4 Concluding Remarks.- References.- 3 Nutrient Transport by the Invertebrate Gut.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Annelida.- 3 Echinodermata.- 4 Mollusca.- 5 Arthropoda.- 6 Overview of Invertebrate Nutrient Absorption.- References.- 4 Nutrient Transport Across Vertebrate Intestine.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Where Sugar and Amino Acid Absorption Occurs.- 3 Pathways for Sugar and Amino Acid Absorption and Mechanisms of Regulation.- 4 Patterns of Adaptation.- References.- 5 Nutrient Transport Across the Integument of Marine Invertebrates.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Background Information.- 3 Integumental Transport in Marine Mollusks.- 4 Integumental DOM Transport in Echinoderms.- 5 Integumental Uptake of DOM in Annelids.- 6 On the Mechanism of Integumental Transport.- 7 Conclusions.- References.- 6 The Fate of Stable Pollutants - Heavy Metals and Organochlorines - in Marine Organisms.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Spatial and Temporal Variations of the Contamination Level of Marine Organisms.- 3 Fate of Pollutants in Marine Organisms.- 4 Stable Pollutants at the Ecosystem Level, Biological Indicators and Monitoring.- References.