Experimental determination of the impact of ambient temperatures on leg coordination, force distribution and body dynamics of fast locomotion in arthropods and 3D numerical modelling of polypedal locomotion.

实验确定环境温度对节肢动物快速运动的腿部协调性、力分布和身体动力学的影响以及多足运动的 3D 数值建模。

• 批准号: 513506278
• 负责人: Dr. Tom Weihmann
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung Tierphysiologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/513506278?language=en
• 关键词: Experimental; determination; impact; ambient; temperatures

Owing to their abundance, practical ubiquity as well as their morphological, behavioural and ecological diversity, arthropods are among the most important ecological actors. However, surprisingly little is known about their terrestrial locomotion, particularly on higher running speeds. Most available studies focus on a few laboratory species, which hardly cover the immense diversity of arthropod body plans. The arthropods’ bodies vary in a multitude of parameters. With regard to locomotion physiology, important parameters are the number of propulsive legs, body size, posture and dynamics, leg design and length, timing and coordination as well as the way leg forces are generated and transferred to the ground. Force generation depends on leg muscle function and limitations thereof. Many of these parameters are limited by ambient temperatures, i.e. a constraint that has hardly been examined so far in the context of locomotion. In previous experiments, I was able to demonstrate the enormous influence of temperatures on all possible kinematic parameters for cockroaches. However, a much larger database on arthropod locomotion is needed. Therefore, I plan to investigate the locomotion of ecologically differently adapted arthropods, like faster and slower runners, with different numbers of propulsive legs, like insects and arachnids, and different body sizes, like juveniles and adults of hemimetabolous species. 3D Kinematics shall be examined for three different temperatures each. The forces transmitted by the legs to the ground and the interactions of these forces with each other determine locomotion dynamics, stability and energetics. I plan to examine ground reaction forces particularly at high running speeds in order to reveal interactions between the legs and passive contributions such as elasticity and damping for many legged designs. To complete the picture, the properties of the legs’ drives, i.e. the muscles, will be mapped using histological methods to determine myosin-ATPase activity and sarcomere lengths, which provide information on contraction speed and maximum muscle stress. For key species, the contraction properties, like the force-length relation and the force-velocity relation of functionally important leg muscles will be investigated directly. The data obtained on kinematics, dynamics and ground reaction forces of arthropod locomotion as well as on muscle contraction properties will be used for the development of a multimodal scalable 3D model. This multifaceted approach combining the examination of locomotion dynamics in fast arthropod species covering a range of locomotor apparatuses and temperature regimes, the examination of muscle properties, and the development of improved numerical models has a high potential to further integrate morphological and functional knowledge, connects function and ecology and may lead to knowledge transfer into technical implementations.

节肢动物由于其丰富的数量、广泛的应用以及形态、行为和生态的多样性，成为最重要的生态行为体之一。然而，令人惊讶的是，人们对它们在陆地上的运动知之甚少，尤其是在高速奔跑的情况下。大多数现有的研究都集中在几个实验室物种上，这很难涵盖节肢动物身体结构的巨大多样性。节肢动物的身体在许多方面都有所不同。在运动生理学方面，重要的参数是推进腿的数量、身体大小、姿势和动力学、腿的设计和长度、时机和协调以及腿的力量产生和传递到地面的方式。力的产生取决于腿部肌肉的功能及其局限性。这些参数中的许多都受到环境温度的限制，也就是说，到目前为止，在运动环境中几乎没有研究过这种限制。在之前的实验中，我证明了温度对蟑螂所有可能的运动参数的巨大影响。然而，需要一个更大的节肢动物运动数据库。因此，我打算研究生态适应不同的节肢动物的运动，比如跑得快的和跑得慢的，有不同数量推进腿的，比如昆虫和蛛形纲动物，有不同体型的，比如半代谢物种的幼体和成体。三维运动学应在三个不同的温度下进行检查。腿传递到地面的力以及这些力之间的相互作用决定了运动动力学、稳定性和能量学。我计划研究地面反作用力，特别是在高速奔跑时，以揭示腿之间的相互作用和被动贡献，如许多腿设计的弹性和阻尼。为了完成这幅图，将使用组织学方法绘制腿部驱动的特性，即肌肉，以确定肌球蛋白- atp酶活性和肌节长度，这提供了收缩速度和最大肌肉应力的信息。对于关键物种，将直接研究其收缩特性，如重要功能腿部肌肉的力-长度关系和力-速度关系。获得的关于节肢动物运动的运动学、动力学和地面反作用力以及肌肉收缩特性的数据将用于开发多模式可扩展的3D模型。这种多方面的方法结合了对快速节肢动物物种的运动动力学的研究，涵盖了一系列运动装置和温度制度，肌肉特性的研究，以及改进的数值模型的发展，具有很大的潜力，可以进一步整合形态和功能知识，连接功能和生态学，并可能导致知识转移到技术实施中。