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Journal of Zoology - 2025 - Dubiner - Changes in marine iguana Amblyrhynchus cristatus heart rates suggest reduced490.26 kB
Published VersionCC BY-NC V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Changes in marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) heart rates suggest reduced metabolism during El Niño events
Journal of Zoology, Vol.325(4), pp.276-282
2025
Abstract
Marine iguanas occasionally face severe food shortages because of algal dieback during El Niño events. Research on their adaptations to these periods has highlighted their unique ability to shrink in body length, which reduces their energetic needs. Additional mechanisms, like sustaining lower body temperatures and metabolic rates, could potentially also lower energy consumption, but have never been examined. We measured 665 iguanas over an 11‐year period including three El Niño events, and examined how heart rates (a proxy for metabolic rates) and body temperatures change with sea‐surface temperature oscillations (Oceanic Niño Index, ONI). Heart rate (adjusting for body size, temperature, season, and study site) was negatively correlated with ONI and lower during El Niño, whereas the adjusted body temperature did not correlate with ONI or differ between El Niño and other periods. We therefore hypothesize that marine iguanas can depress their metabolic rates in response to the harsh conditions, an adaptation that is complementary to shrinking and may further enhance their survival through periods of limited food. Direct metabolic measurements are needed to test this hypothesis.
Details
- Title
- Changes in marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) heart rates suggest reduced metabolism during El Niño events
- Authors
- S. Dubiner (Corresponding Author) - Tel Aviv UniversityJ. P. Muñoz Pérez - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringD. Alarcón-Ruales - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringE. Cohen - North Carolina State UniversityD. Deresienski - North Carolina State UniversityM. Hirschfeld - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringE. Levin - Tel Aviv UniversityK. J. Lohmann - University of North Carolina at Chapel HillS. Meiri - Tel Aviv UniversityG. Lewbart - Universidad San Francisco de Quito
- Publication details
- Journal of Zoology, Vol.325(4), pp.276-282
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1111/jzo.13254
- ISSN
- 1469-7998; 0952-8369
- Copyright note
- © 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Zoology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Zoological Society of London. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
- Data Availability
- All the data used in this paper are available in Table S1.
- Grant note
- This research received primary support from the University ofNorth Carolina Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991103243302621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Zoology
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