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Moult-related reduction of aerobic scope in passerine birds

Buttemer, William A. ; Bauer, Silke ; Emmenegger, Tamara LU orcid ; Dimitrov, Dimitar ; Peev, Strahil and Hahn, Steffen (2019) In Journal of Comparative Physiology B: Biochemical, Systemic, and Environmental Physiology 189(3-4). p.463-470
Abstract

It is well established that the nutrient and energy requirements of birds increase substantially during moult, but it is not known if these increased demands affect their aerobic capacity. We quantified the absolute aerobic scope of house and Spanish sparrows, Passer domesticus and P. hispaniolensis, respectively, before and during sequential stages of their moult period. The absolute aerobic scope (AAS) is the difference between maximum metabolic rate (MMR) during peak locomotor activities and minimum resting metabolic rate (RMRmin), thus representing the amount of aerobic power above that committed to maintenance needs available for other activities. As expected, RMRmin increased over the moult period by up to 40... (More)

It is well established that the nutrient and energy requirements of birds increase substantially during moult, but it is not known if these increased demands affect their aerobic capacity. We quantified the absolute aerobic scope of house and Spanish sparrows, Passer domesticus and P. hispaniolensis, respectively, before and during sequential stages of their moult period. The absolute aerobic scope (AAS) is the difference between maximum metabolic rate (MMR) during peak locomotor activities and minimum resting metabolic rate (RMRmin), thus representing the amount of aerobic power above that committed to maintenance needs available for other activities. As expected, RMRmin increased over the moult period by up to 40 and 63% in house and Spanish sparrows, respectively. Surprisingly, the maximum metabolic rates also decreased during moult in both species, declining as much as 25 and 38% compared with pre-moult values of house and Spanish sparrows, respectively. The concurrent changes in RMRmin and MMR during moult resulted in significant decreases in AAS, being up to 32 and 47% lower than pre-moult levels of house and Spanish sparrows, respectively, during moult stages having substantial feather replacement. We argue that the combination of reduced flight efficiency due to loss of wing feathers and reduced aerobic capacity places moulting birds at greater risk of predation. Such performance constraints likely contribute to most birds temporally separating moult from annual events requiring peak physiological capacity such as breeding and migration.

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author
; ; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
keywords
Aerobic scope, Avian moult energetics, Maximum metabolic rate, Passer domesticus, Passer hispaniolensis, Resting metabolic rate
in
Journal of Comparative Physiology B: Biochemical, Systemic, and Environmental Physiology
volume
189
issue
3-4
pages
463 - 470
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:85062977035
  • pmid:30874899
ISSN
0174-1578
DOI
10.1007/s00360-019-01213-z
language
English
LU publication?
no
additional info
Funding Information: Funding This study was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (31003A_160265) to S.B. and S.H. Funding Information: We thank Pavel Zehtindjiev for facilitating our research at Kalimok Station and Martin Marinov, Katrina Ivanova, and Mihaela Ilieva for animal care assistance, and the four anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. All experimental procedures were carried out under the permission and guidelines of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Waters (no. 627/30.03.2015). All birds were released at the end of study. This study is report No. 65 of the Biological Experimental Station ?Kalimok?. Publisher Copyright: © 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
id
2424865f-ee6e-400c-b440-2ed9371719ad
date added to LUP
2021-10-29 11:01:09
date last changed
2024-05-04 15:28:03
@article{2424865f-ee6e-400c-b440-2ed9371719ad,
  abstract     = {{<p>It is well established that the nutrient and energy requirements of birds increase substantially during moult, but it is not known if these increased demands affect their aerobic capacity. We quantified the absolute aerobic scope of house and Spanish sparrows, Passer domesticus and P. hispaniolensis, respectively, before and during sequential stages of their moult period. The absolute aerobic scope (AAS) is the difference between maximum metabolic rate (MMR) during peak locomotor activities and minimum resting metabolic rate (RMR<sub>min</sub>), thus representing the amount of aerobic power above that committed to maintenance needs available for other activities. As expected, RMR<sub>min</sub> increased over the moult period by up to 40 and 63% in house and Spanish sparrows, respectively. Surprisingly, the maximum metabolic rates also decreased during moult in both species, declining as much as 25 and 38% compared with pre-moult values of house and Spanish sparrows, respectively. The concurrent changes in RMR<sub>min</sub> and MMR during moult resulted in significant decreases in AAS, being up to 32 and 47% lower than pre-moult levels of house and Spanish sparrows, respectively, during moult stages having substantial feather replacement. We argue that the combination of reduced flight efficiency due to loss of wing feathers and reduced aerobic capacity places moulting birds at greater risk of predation. Such performance constraints likely contribute to most birds temporally separating moult from annual events requiring peak physiological capacity such as breeding and migration.</p>}},
  author       = {{Buttemer, William A. and Bauer, Silke and Emmenegger, Tamara and Dimitrov, Dimitar and Peev, Strahil and Hahn, Steffen}},
  issn         = {{0174-1578}},
  keywords     = {{Aerobic scope; Avian moult energetics; Maximum metabolic rate; Passer domesticus; Passer hispaniolensis; Resting metabolic rate}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{08}},
  number       = {{3-4}},
  pages        = {{463--470}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Journal of Comparative Physiology B: Biochemical, Systemic, and Environmental Physiology}},
  title        = {{Moult-related reduction of aerobic scope in passerine birds}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00360-019-01213-z}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s00360-019-01213-z}},
  volume       = {{189}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}