ScienceAugust 22, 2026

respirometry

RES-pi-ROM-i-tree

Definition

A scientific technique used to measure the rate of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production in an organism.

Etymology

Derived from the Latin 'respirare' (to breathe) and the Greek suffix '-metria' (measuring), describing the formal measurement of an organism's respiration.

In the news

Researchers used respirometry to analyze how submerged bumblebee queens continued to exchange gases underwater, helping explain their survival mechanisms.

An accidental laboratory flood revealed that hibernating queen bumblebees can survive completely underwater for seven days — 89.5% lived across the treatments, buying a future colony the time its only founder may need to outlast a flooded burrow and begi

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