Timing of locomotor activity and body temperature under energetic challenges: a lab and field approach

• Grant number: 14/23843-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: February 15, 2015
• End date: December 21, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - General Physiology
• Principal Investigator: Gisele Akemi Oda
• Grantee: Patricia Tachinardi Andrade Silva
• Supervisor: Roelof A. Hut
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Groningen, Netherlands
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/23393-5 - Daily patterns of energy expenditure in the subterranean rodent Ctenomys aff. knighti, the tuco-tuco, BP.DR

Abstract

Studies that show discrepancy between daily activity patterns between laboratory and field have become increasingly common and suggest that there are factors in the field that are not reproduced in the laboratory. Recently, it was proposed that food availability could be one of the fundamental differences between field and laboratory that can alter the temporal daily pattern of activity. In laboratory, animals are fed ad libitum, while in nature they need to expend energy for foraging. Evidence supporting this hypothesis come from lab studies in which mice need to work to obtain food and simultaneously increase the amount of activity during daytime. Based on these results, the "circadian thermo-energetics hypothesis" was formulated, suggesting that daytime activity could be a response to the high energy cost of foraging, allowing the animal to rest during the cooler evening hours. This would allow energy savings with thermoregulation, because the animals at rest can adopt postures that increase their insulation and take shelter in burrows where temperatures are higher than on the surface. They could also save energy by becoming torpid overnight. The goal of this project is to investigate two important factors to validate this hypothesis. Firstly, the "work for food" protocol will be performed at high ambient temperatures, a situation in which the diurnal activity would not generate energy savings. Secondly, the pattern of body temperature of animals subjected to food restriction in semi-natural enclosures will be investigated, in order to verify if they are use torpor to deal with energetic challenges in nature. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

VAN DER VINNE, VINCENT; TACHINARDI, PATRICIA; RIEDE, SJAAK J.; AKKERMAN, JILDERT; SCHEEPE, JAMEY; DAAN, SERGE; HUT, ROELOF A.. Maximising survival by shifting the daily timing of activity. ECOLOGY LETTERS, v. 22, n. 12, p. 2097-2102, DEC 2019. (14/23843-6)