Diving Biology of Emperor Penguins

生活在南极冰盖地带的皇帝企鹅(Aptenoidytes Forsteri)的潜水能力多年来一直是人们感兴趣的话题。按照惯例，帝企鹅会在50米到500米深的海底觅食大约2到10分钟。据记录，这些鸟可以到达近550米的深度。最长的潜水并不是最深的，创纪录的22分钟潜水持续时间远远低于其创纪录的深度。本项目的目标是了解潜水鸟类屏气能力的生理和行为机制，了解生理极限如何影响这些物种的自然潜水行为和生态，并利用潜水鸟类独特的适应能力来探索器官和组织耐缺氧的机制。该项目将研究南极罗斯海地区帝企鹅的潜水生理和行为。体温调节、水下行为和肌红蛋白浓度调节是潜水生物学的三个重要方面，皇帝企鹅是研究潜水鸟类和哺乳动物潜水生理和潜水行为的极佳模型。本项目的重点是在潜水过程中降低体温对延长有氧代谢持续时间的作用。此外，一个小型摄像头将被用来检查潜水过程中的行为，这将允许猎物摄取和机翼击打频率以及核心和肌肉温度变化之间的关联。第三，一项分子生物学研究将利用帝王的高肌红蛋白浓度和雏鸡发育期间肌红蛋白浓度的大幅增加来检查肌红蛋白基因的转录控制。该项目将提供对帝企鹅潜水生理和行为方面的了解，这将适用于其他潜水鸟类和哺乳动物的研究。

9814794PONGANISThe diving ability of the emperor penguin (Aptenoidytes forsteri), which lives within the pack ice zone of the Antarctic, has been the subject of interest for many years. On a routine basis, emperor penguins hunt for food for about two to ten minutes at depths between 50 and 500 meters. These birds have been recorded as reaching a depth of nearly 550 meters. The longest dives are not the deepest, and the record twenty-two minutes recorded diving duration was well below its record depth. The goals of this project are to understand both the physiological and behavioral mechanisms underlying the breath-hold capacity of these diving birds, to understand how the physiological limits may affect the natural diving behavior and ecology of these species, and to utilize the unique adaptation of diving birds to explore mechanisms of organ and tissue hypoxemic tolerance. This project will examine the diving physiology and behavior of emperor penguins in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica. Thermoregulation, underwater behavior and regulation of myoglobin concentration are three significant aspects of diving biology for which the emperor penguin is an excellent model of investigation of the diving physiology and diving behavior of diving birds and mammals. This project focuses on the role of decreased body temperature in extending the duration of aerobic metabolism during diving. Additionally, a small camera will be utilized to examine behavior during diving, which will allow for a correlation between prey ingestion and wing stroke frequency and changes in core and muscle temperature. Thirdly, a molecular biology study will utilize the high myoglobin concentration of emperors and the large increases in myoglobin concentration during chick development to examine transcriptional control of the myoglobin gene. This project will provide an understanding of aspects of the diving physiology and behavior of emperor penguins, which will be applicable to studies of other diving birds and mammals.