Which mechanism causes increased avian mortality during prolonged volcanic ash clouds?

💡 Explanation

When birds inhale volcanic ash, silicosis occurs because the fine silica particles in the ash damage the air sacs and lung tissues making gas exchange inefficient leading to pulmonary failure and mortality. Therefore pulmonary failure results, rather than other toxicological injuries which require different transmission routes.

• Which physiological risk increases in freshwater fish whose osmotic gradient is damaged through injury?
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• If a mutation disables larval-expressed caspase production, what altered outcome impacts imaginal disc development?
• Which consequence results when plants experience high vapor-pressure deficit?
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