Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physiology
Mapping the past, present and future research landscape of paternal effects
Published: 2020-05-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Other Medicine and Health Sciences, Physiology
Although in all sexually reproducing organisms, an individual has a mother and a father, non-genetic inheritance has been predominantly studied in mothers. Paternal effects have been far less frequently studied, until recently. In the last five years, research on environmentally induced paternal effects has grown rapidly in the number of publications and diversity of topics. Motivations for [...]
Physiological condition of amphibians exposed to historical industrial pollution in a Brazilian biodiversity hotspot
Published: 2020-03-06
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biodiversity, Biology, Life Sciences, Physiology
Industrial pollution is a significant global threat to biodiversity, but its consequences on rainforest ecosystems remains poorly understood. Amphibians are especially susceptible to pollutants released on natural environments due to their aquatic-terrestrial life cycle. Here, we explored the effects of severe historical air, water and soil industrial pollution of Cubatão Industrial Complex (São [...]
The Evolutionary Ecology of Age at Natural Menopause: Implications for Public Health
Published: 2020-02-11
Subjects: Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Medicine and Health Sciences, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Physiology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Evolutionary perspectives on menopause have focused on explaining why early reproductive cessation in females has emerged and why it is rare throughout the animal kingdom, but less attention has been given to exploring patterns of diversity in age at natural menopause. In this paper, we aim to generate new hypotheses for understanding human patterns of diversity in this trait, defined as age at [...]
Aerobic scope protection reduces ectotherm growth under warming
Published: 2020-01-24
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Life Sciences, Physiology, Zoology
Temperature has a dramatic effect on the physiology of ectothermic animals, impacting most of their biology. When temperatures increase above optimal for an animal, their growth gradually decreases. The main mechanism behind this growth rate reduction is unknown. Here, we suggest the ‘aerobic scope protection’ hypothesis as a mechanistic explanation for the reduction in growth. After a meal, [...]
Quantifying the autonomic response to stressors – one way to expand the definition of "stress" in animals
Published: 2019-11-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Endocrinology, Life Sciences, Physiology, Systems Biology
Quantifying the impact of changes or stimuli in the external and internal environment that are challenging (“stressors”) to whole organisms is difficult. To date, physiological ecologists and ecological physiologists have mostly used measures of glucocorticoids (GCs) to assess the impact of stressors on animals. This is of course too simplistic as Hans Seyle himself characterized the response of [...]
Endocrinology of thermoregulation in birds in a changing climate
Published: 2019-09-08
Subjects: Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Endocrinology, Life Sciences, Physiology
The ability to maintain a (relatively) stable body temperature in a wide range of thermal environments is a unique feature of endotherms such as birds. Endothermy is acquired and regulated via various endocrine and molecular pathways, and ultimately allows wide aerial, aquatic, and terrestrial distribution in variable environments. However, due to our changing climate, birds are faced with [...]
The covariance between metabolic rate and behaviour varies across behaviours and thermal types: meta-analytic insights
Published: 2019-01-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Physiology
Energy metabolism has received much attention as a potential driver of repeatable among-individual differences in behaviour (animal personality). Several factors have been hypothesized to mediate this relationship. We performed a meta-analysis of >70 studies comprised of >8000 individuals reporting relationships between measures of maintenance metabolic rates (i.e., basal metabolic rate, [...]