An automatic, continuous flow, gas analysis system was designed to monitor metabolic rates of terrestrial vertebrates over relatively long periods of time, such as daily cycles, under field conditions in the absence of the investigator. The gas analysis system described in this report used an infrared absorption analyzer for carbon dioxide and a paramagnetic analyzer for oxygen. The simultaneous measurement of C02 production and O2 consumption by an organism permitted the direct cal¬culation of the respiratory quotient (RQ), an important index in determining metabolic rates.
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