The relationship between heart rate and rate of oxygen consumption in Galapagos marine iguanas (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) at two different temperatures

Abstract

SUMMARY To enable the use of heart rate (fH) for estimating field metabolic rate (FMR) in free-ranging Galapagos marine iguanas Amblyrhynchus cristatus, we determined the relationships between fH and mass-specific rate of oxygen consumption(sV̇O2) in seven iguanas before and during exercise on a treadmill and during the post-exercise period. The experiments were conducted at 27 and 35°C, which are the temperatures that represent the lowest and highest average body temperatures of these animals in the field during summer. There were linear and significant relationships between fH and sV̇O2 at both temperatures (r2=0.86 and 0.91 at 27°C and 36°C,respectively). The slopes of the two regression lines did not differ, but there were significant differences in their intercepts. Thus, while heart rate can be used to predict FMR, the effects of temperature on the intercept of the regression must be taken into account when converting fH to sV̇O2. On the basis of our data, this can be achieved by applying the following formula: \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \[\mathrm{s}{\dot{V}}_{\mathrm{o}_{2}}=0.0113f\mathrm{H}-0.2983\mathrm{Q}_{10}^{\frac{(T_{\mathrm{b}}-27)}{10}}.\] \end{document}The increase in sV̇O2 with elevated body temperature results from an increase in fH, with no significant change in mass-specific oxygen pulse (sO2 pulse;cardiac stroke volume times the difference in oxygen content between arterial and mixed venous blood). However, during exercise at both temperatures,increases in fH are insufficient to provide all of the additional O2 required and there are also significant increases in the sO2 pulses. This creates the situation whereby the same fH at the two temperatures can represent different values of sV̇O2.