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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Modelling mammalian energetics: the heterothermy problem
Climate Change Responses, Vol.3(7), pp.2-11
2016
Abstract
Global climate change is expected to have strong effects on the world’s flora and fauna. As a result, there has been a recent increase in the number of meta-analyses and mechanistic models that attempt to predict potential responses of mammals to changing climates. Many models that seek to explain the effects of environmental
temperatures on mammalian energetics and survival assume a constant body temperature. However, despite generally being regarded as strict homeotherms, mammals demonstrate a large degree of daily variability in body temperature, as well as the ability to reduce metabolic costs either by entering torpor, or by increasing body
temperatures at high ambient temperatures. Often, changes in body temperature variability are unpredictable, and happen in response to immediate changes in resource abundance or temperature. In this review we provide an overview of variability and unpredictability found in body temperatures of extant mammals, identify potential blind spots in the current literature, and discuss options for incorporating variability into predictive mechanistic models.
Details
- Title
- Modelling mammalian energetics: the heterothermy problem
- Authors
- Danielle L Levesque (Author) - University of MaineJulia Nowack (Author) - Western Sydney UniversityClare Stawski (Author) - University of New England
- Publication details
- Climate Change Responses, Vol.3(7), pp.2-11
- Publisher
- BioMed Central Ltd.
- Date published
- 2016
- DOI
- 10.1186/s40665-016-0022-3
- ISSN
- 2053-7565
- Copyright note
- © 2016 The Author(s). Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99639179102621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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