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Vertebrate blood cell volume increases with temperature: implications for aerobic activity.

ABSTRACT: Aerobic activity levels increase with body temperature across vertebrates. Differences in these levels, from highly active to sedentary, are reflected in their ecology and behavior. Yet, the changes in the cardiovascular system that allow for greater oxygen supply at higher temperatures, and thus greater aerobic activity, remain unclear. Here we show that the total volume of red blood cells in the body increases exponentially with temperature across vertebrates, after controlling for effects of body size and taxonomy. These changes are accompanied by increases in relative heart mass, an indicator of aerobic activity. The results point to one way vertebrates may increase oxygen supply to meet the demands of greater activity at higher temperatures.

SUBMITTER: Gillooly JF

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3994644 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Vertebrate blood cell volume increases with temperature: implications for aerobic activity.

Gillooly James F JF Zenil-Ferguson Rosana R

PeerJ 20140410

Aerobic activity levels increase with body temperature across vertebrates. Differences in these levels, from highly active to sedentary, are reflected in their ecology and behavior. Yet, the changes in the cardiovascular system that allow for greater oxygen supply at higher temperatures, and thus greater aerobic activity, remain unclear. Here we show that the total volume of red blood cells in the body increases exponentially with temperature across vertebrates, after controlling for effects of ...[more]

PMID: 24765580

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Project description:Considering that swim-flume or chasing methods fail in the estimation of maximum metabolic rate and in the estimation of Aerobic Scope (AS) of sedentary or sluggish aquatic ectotherms, we propose a novel conceptual approach in which high metabolic rates can be obtained through stimulation of organism metabolic activity using high and low non-lethal temperatures that induce high (HMR) and low metabolic rates (LMR), This method was defined as TIMR: Temperature Induced Metabolic Rate, designed to obtain an aerobic power budget based on temperature-induced metabolic scope which may mirror thermal metabolic scope (TMS = HMR-LMR). Prior to use, the researcher should know the critical thermal maximum (CT max) and minimum (CT min) of animals, and calculate temperature TIMR max (at temperatures -5-10% below CT max) and TIMR min (at temperatures +5-10% above CT min), or choose a high and low non-lethal temperature that provoke a higher and lower metabolic rate than observed in routine conditions. Two sets of experiments were carried out. The first compared swim-flume open respirometry and the TIMR protocol using Centropomus undecimalis (snook), an endurance swimmer, acclimated at different temperatures. Results showed that independent of the method used and of the magnitude of the metabolic response, a similar relationship between maximum metabolic budget and acclimation temperature was observed, demonstrating that the TIMR method allows the identification of TMS. The second evaluated the effect of acclimation temperature in snook, semi-sedentary yellow tail (Ocyurus chrysurus), and sedentary clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris), using TIMR and the chasing method. Both methods produced similar maximum metabolic rates in snook and yellowtail fish, but strong differences became visible in clownfish. In clownfish, the TIMR method led to a significantly higher TMS than the chasing method indicating that chasing may not fully exploit the aerobic power budget in sedentary species. Thus, the TIMR method provides an alternative way to estimate the difference between high and low metabolic activity under different acclimation conditions that, although not equivalent to AS may allow the standardized estimation of TMS that is relevant for sedentary species where measurement of AS via maximal swimming is inappropriate.

Dataset Information

Vertebrate blood cell volume increases with temperature: implications for aerobic activity.

Publications

Vertebrate blood cell volume increases with temperature: implications for aerobic activity.

Similar Datasets

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