An arctic breeding songbird overheats during intense activity even at low air temperatures
Abstract Birds maintain some of the highest body temperatures among endothermic animals. Often deemed a selective advantage for heat tolerance, high body temperatures also limits birds’ thermal safety margin before reaching lethal levels. Recent modelling suggests that sustained effort in Arctic bir...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f59f560d2f2346a4967415c230a07e5f 2024-09-15T17:52:18+00:00 An arctic breeding songbird overheats during intense activity even at low air temperatures Ryan S. O’Connor Oliver P. Love Lyette Régimbald Audrey Le Pogam Alexander R. Gerson Kyle H. Elliott Anna L. Hargreaves François Vézina 2024-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-65208-9 https://doaj.org/article/f59f560d2f2346a4967415c230a07e5f EN eng Nature Portfolio https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-65208-9 https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322 doi:10.1038/s41598-024-65208-9 2045-2322 https://doaj.org/article/f59f560d2f2346a4967415c230a07e5f Scientific Reports, Vol 14, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2024) Arctic breeding species Climate change Evaporative cooling Flight Heat tolerance Hyperthermia Medicine R Science Q article 2024 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-65208-9 2024-08-05T17:48:59Z Abstract Birds maintain some of the highest body temperatures among endothermic animals. Often deemed a selective advantage for heat tolerance, high body temperatures also limits birds’ thermal safety margin before reaching lethal levels. Recent modelling suggests that sustained effort in Arctic birds might be restricted at mild air temperatures, which may require reductions in activity to avoid overheating, with expected negative impacts on reproductive performance. We measured within-individual changes in body temperature in calm birds and then in response to an experimental increase in activity in an outdoor captive population of Arctic, cold-specialised snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis), exposed to naturally varying air temperatures (− 15 to 36 °C). Calm buntings exhibited a modal body temperature range from 39.9 to 42.6 °C. However, we detected a significant increase in body temperature within minutes of shifting calm birds to active flight, with strong evidence for a positive effect of air temperature on body temperature (slope = 0.04 °C/ °C). Importantly, by an ambient temperature of 9 °C, flying buntings were already generating body temperatures ≥ 45 °C, approaching the upper thermal limits of organismal performance (45–47 °C). With known limited evaporative heat dissipation capacities in these birds, our results support the recent prediction that free-living buntings operating at maximal sustainable rates will increasingly need to rely on behavioural thermoregulatory strategies to regulate body temperature, to the detriment of nestling growth and survival. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic birds Climate change Plectrophenax nivalis Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Scientific Reports 14 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic breeding species Climate change Evaporative cooling Flight Heat tolerance Hyperthermia Medicine R Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Arctic breeding species Climate change Evaporative cooling Flight Heat tolerance Hyperthermia Medicine R Science Q Ryan S. O’Connor Oliver P. Love Lyette Régimbald Audrey Le Pogam Alexander R. Gerson Kyle H. Elliott Anna L. Hargreaves François Vézina An arctic breeding songbird overheats during intense activity even at low air temperatures |
topic_facet |
Arctic breeding species Climate change Evaporative cooling Flight Heat tolerance Hyperthermia Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Abstract Birds maintain some of the highest body temperatures among endothermic animals. Often deemed a selective advantage for heat tolerance, high body temperatures also limits birds’ thermal safety margin before reaching lethal levels. Recent modelling suggests that sustained effort in Arctic birds might be restricted at mild air temperatures, which may require reductions in activity to avoid overheating, with expected negative impacts on reproductive performance. We measured within-individual changes in body temperature in calm birds and then in response to an experimental increase in activity in an outdoor captive population of Arctic, cold-specialised snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis), exposed to naturally varying air temperatures (− 15 to 36 °C). Calm buntings exhibited a modal body temperature range from 39.9 to 42.6 °C. However, we detected a significant increase in body temperature within minutes of shifting calm birds to active flight, with strong evidence for a positive effect of air temperature on body temperature (slope = 0.04 °C/ °C). Importantly, by an ambient temperature of 9 °C, flying buntings were already generating body temperatures ≥ 45 °C, approaching the upper thermal limits of organismal performance (45–47 °C). With known limited evaporative heat dissipation capacities in these birds, our results support the recent prediction that free-living buntings operating at maximal sustainable rates will increasingly need to rely on behavioural thermoregulatory strategies to regulate body temperature, to the detriment of nestling growth and survival. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ryan S. O’Connor Oliver P. Love Lyette Régimbald Audrey Le Pogam Alexander R. Gerson Kyle H. Elliott Anna L. Hargreaves François Vézina |
author_facet |
Ryan S. O’Connor Oliver P. Love Lyette Régimbald Audrey Le Pogam Alexander R. Gerson Kyle H. Elliott Anna L. Hargreaves François Vézina |
author_sort |
Ryan S. O’Connor |
title |
An arctic breeding songbird overheats during intense activity even at low air temperatures |
title_short |
An arctic breeding songbird overheats during intense activity even at low air temperatures |
title_full |
An arctic breeding songbird overheats during intense activity even at low air temperatures |
title_fullStr |
An arctic breeding songbird overheats during intense activity even at low air temperatures |
title_full_unstemmed |
An arctic breeding songbird overheats during intense activity even at low air temperatures |
title_sort |
arctic breeding songbird overheats during intense activity even at low air temperatures |
publisher |
Nature Portfolio |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-65208-9 https://doaj.org/article/f59f560d2f2346a4967415c230a07e5f |
genre |
Arctic birds Climate change Plectrophenax nivalis |
genre_facet |
Arctic birds Climate change Plectrophenax nivalis |
op_source |
Scientific Reports, Vol 14, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2024) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-65208-9 https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322 doi:10.1038/s41598-024-65208-9 2045-2322 https://doaj.org/article/f59f560d2f2346a4967415c230a07e5f |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-65208-9 |
container_title |
Scientific Reports |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1810294365546872832 |