Author:
Swanson David L.,Stager Maria,Vézina François,Liu Jin-Song,McKechnie Andrew E.,Amirkhiz Reza Goljani
Abstract
AbstractReversible phenotypic flexibility allows organisms to better match phenotypes to prevailing environmental conditions and may produce fitness benefits. Costs and constraints of phenotypic flexibility may limit the capacity for flexible responses but are not well understood nor documented. Costs could include expenses associated with maintaining the flexible system or with generating the flexible response. One potential cost of maintaining a flexible system is an energetic cost reflected in the basal metabolic rate (BMR), with elevated BMR in individuals with more flexible metabolic responses. We accessed data from thermal acclimation studies of birds where BMR and/or Msum(maximum cold-induced metabolic rate) were measured before and after acclimation, as a measure of metabolic flexibility, to test the hypothesis that flexibility in BMR (ΔBMR), Msum(ΔMsum), or metabolic scope (Msum − BMR; ΔScope) is positively correlated with BMR. When temperature treatments lasted at least three weeks, three of six species showed significant positive correlations between ΔBMR and BMR, one species showed a significant negative correlation, and two species showed no significant correlation. ΔMsumand BMR were not significantly correlated for any species and ΔScope and BMR were significantly positively correlated for only one species. These data suggest that support costs exist for maintaining high BMR flexibility for some bird species, but high flexibility in Msumor metabolic scope does not generally incur elevated maintenance costs.
Funder
Directorate for Biological Sciences
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Canadian Foundation for Innovation
National Natural Science Foundation of China
National Research Foundation, South Africa
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
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