Comparative animal thermoregulatory physiology

所有动物都需要氧气来维持有氧代谢，并最终生存下来。尽管如此，在许多情况下，如冰覆盖的湖泊、高海拔和地下洞穴，氧气是有限的，称为缺氧。动物有许多适应这些环境压力的能力。我的研究项目的目标是了解当高代谢率或高体温不可能或低效维持的时候，动物如何控制自己的新陈代谢和体温，比如缺氧、体温过低、冬眠、麻木或睡眠时的情况。目前，此控件驻留在正文中的位置是未知的。细胞和组织似乎有调节新陈代谢的内在机制，但神经系统作为控制中心的作用却鲜为人知。动物界对这些新陈代谢状态的广泛适应表明，在整个进化过程中，非常需要开发这些替代的生理策略来应对严重的环境条件。我们采取比较的方法，研究那些自然进化出应对低氧的生理防御系统的动物。我们一直在开展旨在研究动物如何利用温度来改变其新陈代谢需求的研究。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，在面临缺氧时表现出较低的新陈代谢。这是如何在生理和行为上受到控制的，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特定的环境和生命时期时，尚不清楚。了解这一过程将有助于阐明动物如何修改和操纵新陈代谢需求，并可能导致旨在改变新陈代谢和降低体温的干预措施的开发。鉴于目前环境中正在发生的快速气候变化，更好地了解动物调节温度的内在行为和生理手段，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地应对这些变化。

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.