TY  - JOUR
A1  - Khaliq, Imran
A1  - Hof, Christian
T1  - Testing the heat dissipation limitation hypothesis : basal metabolic rates of endotherms decrease with increasing upper and lower critical temperatures
T2  - PeerJ
N2  - Metabolic critical temperatures define the range of ambient temperatures where endotherms are able to minimize energy allocation to thermogenesis. Examining the relationship between metabolic critical temperatures and basal metabolic rates (BMR) provides a unique opportunity to gain a better understanding of how animals respond to varying ambient climatic conditions, especially in times of ongoing and projected future climate change. We make use of this opportunity by testing the heat dissipation limit (HDL) theory, which hypothesizes that the maximum amount of heat a species can dissipate constrains its energetics. Specifically, we test the theory’s implicit prediction that BMR should be lower under higher metabolic critical temperatures. We analysed the relationship of BMR with upper and lower critical temperatures for a large dataset of 146 endotherm species using regression analyses, carefully accounting for phylogenetic relationships and body mass. We show that metabolic critical temperatures are negatively related with BMR in both birds and mammals. Our results confirm the predictions of the HDL theory, suggesting that metabolic critical temperatures and basal metabolic rates respond in concert to ambient climatic conditions. This implies that heat dissipation capacities of endotherms may be an important factor to take into account in assessments of species’ vulnerability to climate change.
KW  - BMR
KW  - Energy
KW  - Endogenous heat load
KW  - Birds
KW  - Mammals
KW  - Macrophysiology
KW  - Metabolic critical temperatures
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/48466
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-484661
SN  - 2167-8359
N1  - Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0
VL  - 6
IS  - e5725
SP  - 1
EP  - 13
PB  - PeerJ, Inc.
CY  - London [u. a.]
ER  -