Integrative approaches to thermoregulation: behavioural, physiological, and molecular

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All animals require oxygen to maintain aerobic metabolism and ultimately to survive. Nonetheless, there are situations, externally or internally generated, where oxygen is limited, 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 body temperature and metabolism during times when a high metabolic rate or high body temperature is impossible or inefficient to sustain, such as during hypoxia, hypothermia, hibernation, torpor or sleep. Currently, where this control resides in 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 prevalence in the animal kingdom of these reduced metabolic states argues for a great need throughout evolution for the development of alternative physiological strategies for coping with severe environmental conditions. I take a comparative and integrative approach, studying animals that have naturally evolved physiological defences for coping with hypoxia. I have been developing a research program aimed at studying how animals utilise temperature to alter their metabolic needs, since it is well known that cold slows metabolic processes. 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 or 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 recent, rapid climate changes, 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.