Energetic bottlenecks and other design constraints in avian annual cycles

• Published in: Integrative and Comparative Biology
• Main Author: Piersma, T
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2002
• Subjects: BASAL METABOLIC-RATE; KNOTS CALIDRIS-CANUTUS; LONG-DISTANCE MIGRATION; BAR-TAILED GODWITS; AEROBIC PERFORMANCE VARIATION; KESTREL FALCO-TINNUNCULUS; SPRINGTIME STOPOVER SITE; EVAPORATIVE WATER-LOSS; TIT PARUS-MAJOR; BODY-COMPOSITION; Calidris canutus; Tundra
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/11370/1129c56d-e3af-4aa9-8e5d-a586c844c3e4; https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/1129c56d-e3af-4aa9-8e5d-a586c844c3e4; https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/42.1.51; https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/3032705/2002IntegCompBiolPiersma.pdf

The flexible phenotypes of birds and mammals often appear to represent adjustments to alleviate some energetic bottleneck or another. By increasing the size of the organs involved in digestion and assimilation of nutrients (gut and liver), an individual bird can increase its ability to process nutri...