Comparative animal thermoregulatory physiology

所有动物都需要氧气来维持有氧代谢，并最终生存。 然而，有许多情况，如冰封的湖泊，高海拔和地下洞穴，氧气是有限的，称为缺氧。 动物具有许多适应性来应对这些类型的环境压力。 我的研究项目的目标是了解动物如何在高代谢率或高体温不可能或无法维持的情况下控制代谢和体温，例如在缺氧，体温过低，冬眠，麻木或睡眠期间。 目前，该控件在体内的位置尚不清楚。 细胞和组织似乎有调节代谢的内在机制，但神经系统作为控制中心的作用却鲜为人知。 动物王国对这些降低的代谢状态的广泛适应证明，在整个进化过程中，非常需要发展这些替代性的生理策略来应对恶劣的环境条件。 我们采取比较的方法，研究自然进化出应对缺氧的生理防御的动物。 我们一直在开展研究，旨在研究动物如何利用温度来改变其代谢需求。 众所周知，寒冷会减缓新陈代谢过程。 事实证明，所有动物都喜欢较低的体温，并且在缺氧时表现出较低的新陈代谢。 这是如何在生理和行为上控制的，以及为什么所有动物都表现出这种反应，特别是当缺氧只发生在某些环境和生命时期时，尚不清楚。 了解这一过程将揭示动物如何改变和操纵代谢需求，并可能导致旨在改变代谢和降低体温的干预措施的发展。 鉴于目前环境中发生的快速气候变化，更好地了解动物调节温度的固有行为和生理手段也将使我们能够更准确地预测和评估动物如何以及是否能够成功科普这些变化。

All animals require oxygen to maintain an aerobic metabolism and ultimately to survive. Nonetheless, there are many situations such as ice-covered lakes, high altitude, and underground burrows, where oxygen is limiting, called hypoxia. Animals possess numerous adaptations for coping with these kinds of environmental stresses. The goal of my research program is to understand how animals control their metabolism and body temperature during times when a high metabolic rate or high body temperature is impossible or inefficient to sustain, such as that seen during hypoxia, hypothermia, hibernation, torpor or sleep. Currently, where this control resides within the body is unknown. Cells and tissues seem to have built-in mechanisms for regulating metabolism, but the role of the nervous system as the control centre is less well known. The widespread adaptations in the animal kingdom for these reduced metabolic states argues for a great need throughout evolution for the development of these alternative physiological strategies for coping with severe environmental conditions. We take a comparative approach, studying animals that have naturally evolved physiological defences for coping with hypoxia. We have been developing research aimed at how animals utilise temperature to alter their metabolic needs. It is well known that cold slows metabolic processes down. It turns out that all animals prefer lower body temperatures and exhibit lower metabolism when faced with hypoxia. How this is controlled physiologically and behaviourally, and why all animals exhibit this response, particularly when hypoxia only occurs in certain environments and times of life, is unknown. Understanding this process will shed light on how animals modify and manipulate metabolic needs, and potentially lead to the development of interventions aimed at altering metabolism and lowering body temperature. In light of the rapid climate changes currently occurring in the environment, a better understanding of the inherent behavioural and physiological means by which animals regulate temperature will also allow us to predict and assess more accurately how and if animals can successfully cope with these changes.