Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology
Reporting guidelines for terrestrial respirometry: Building openness, transparency of metabolic and evaporative water loss data
Published: 2024-02-20
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences
Respirometry is an important procedure for understanding whole-animal energy and water balance. Consequently, the growing number of studies using respirometry over the last decade warrants reliable reporting and data sharing for effective research synthesis and dissemination. We provide a checklist guideline on five key areas to facilitate the transparency and reproducibly of respirometry [...]
Global exposure risk of frogs to increasing environmental dryness
Published: 2024-02-08
Subjects: Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Zoology
Species exposed to prolonged drying are at risk of population declines or extinctions. A key missing element for assessments of climate change risk is the sensitivity of species to water loss and their microhabitat preference, or ecotype, as both dictate the risk of environmental drying. Here, we identified globally where water-sensitive ectotherms, i.e. anurans, are at risk to increasing aridity [...]
Shrinking body size may not provide meaningful thermoregulatory benefits in a warmer world
Published: 2023-12-13
Subjects: Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Ornithology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Physiology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
In a recent and impressive analysis of avian morphological data (covering >250 000 male birds from 105 species), Youngflesh et al.1 report that birds breeding in North America have become significantly lighter over the last three decades, coincident with rising breeding season temperatures. Because these observations recapitulate predictions under Bergmann’s Rule (i.e., that the body size of [...]
Repeated evolution of extreme locomotor performance independent of changes in extended phenotype use in spiders
Published: 2023-04-24
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Biology, Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Zoology
Many animals utilize self-built structures – so-called extended phenotypes – to enhance body functions, such as thermoregulation, prey capture or defence. Yet, it is unclear whether the evolution of animal constructions supplements or substitutes body functions. Here, using Austral brown spiders, we explored if the evolutionary loss and gain of silken webs as extended prey capture devices [...]
Temperature-dependant, developmental plasticity and its effects on Allen’s and James’ rule in endotherms
Published: 2023-03-07
Subjects: Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Ecogeographical rules, describing common trends in animal form across space and time, have provided key insights into the primary factors driving species diversity on our planet. Among the most well-known ecogeographical rules are Bergmann’s Rule and Allen’s rule, with each correlating ambient temperature to the size and shape of endotherms within a species. These two rules have recently [...]
Adaptations and plastic phenotypic responses of marine animals to the environmental challenges of the high intertidal zone
Published: 2022-01-15
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Physiology
The high intertidal zone is home to an incredible variety of marine animals, as it offers an escape from low intertidal/subtidal predation and competition, among other advantages. However, this area of the shore also comes with many tide-driven and emersion-associated environmental stressors, such as desiccation, high temperatures and freezing stress, hypoxia, salinity fluctuations, nitrogenous [...]
Latitudinal but not elevational variation in blood glucose level is linked to life history across passerine birds
Published: 2022-01-13
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Physiology, Zoology
Macrophysiological research is vital to our understanding of mechanisms underpinning global life history variation and adaptation under diverse environments. Birds represent an important model taxon in this regard, yet our knowledge is limited to only a few physiological traits, mostly studied in temperate and Neotropical species. Here, we examined latitudinal and elevational variation in an [...]
A rapidly expanding house of cards: the silent loss of cell physiology hampers marine biosciences
Published: 2021-11-22
Subjects: Biochemistry, Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Physiology, Systems and Integrative Physiology Life Sciences
Perspective: An ongoing loss of expertise on the biochemistry and physiology of marine organisms hampers our understanding of biological mechanisms upon rapidly growing “-omics” approaches reply -ultimately affecting our ability to predict organismal responses to climate change.
Repeatability of endocrine traits and dominance rank in female guinea pigs
Published: 2021-03-11
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Physiology
Background Glucocorticoids (e.g. cortisol) are associated with variation in social behavior, and previous studies have linked baseline as well as challenge-induced glucocorticoid concentrations to dominance status. It is known that cortisol response to an acute challenge is repeatable and correlates to social behavior in males of many mammal species. However, it is unclear whether these patterns [...]
Rapid-warming tolerance correlates with tolerance to slow warming but not growth at non-optimal temperatures in zebrafish
Published: 2020-05-08
Subjects: Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Life Sciences, Physiology
Global warming is predicted to increase both acute and prolonged thermal challenges for aquatic ectotherms. Severe short and medium-term thermal stress over hours to days may cause mortality, while longer sub-lethal thermal challenges may cause performance declines. The interrelationship between the responses to short, medium and longer thermal challenges is unresolved. We asked if the same [...]
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: 2020-01-23
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, [...]