The influence of ecological context on the use of torpor by caprimulgid birds and vespertilionid bats

最能很好地解释动物一般行为，尤其是恒温动物行为的最接近的货币是能量。他的研究重点是能量获取，而我目前的重点是确定恒温动物(鸟类和哺乳动物)如何、何时以及为什么利用异温(例如，麻木)。对于恒温，抵御持续的体温升高提供了基本的生理优势。然而，这些好处必须与高能量成本相平衡，高能量成本伴随着高代谢率。虽然这些高成本可以被导致代谢率降低的昏迷时间所抵消，从而节省能量。为了增强我们研究的普遍适用性，我和我的学生研究食虫蝙蝠和夜间食虫鸟类(夜壶)。尽管它们之间在系统发育上存在距离，但这些群体在生态和生理上是趋同的。我的短期目标是通过解决以下问题来确定鸟类和哺乳动物异温反应的模式：为什么一些吸热动物群体使用麻木，为什么某些个体在这样做的时候使用它，启动生理反应的线索是什么，为什么个体之间使用这种策略的倾向是灵活的。在接下来的五年里，我的学生和我的学生将评估包括恶劣天气、除寒冷以外的食物稀缺等因素的重要性(例如，季节干旱)、繁殖状况和日间栖息地结构对金龟科鸟类和蝙蝠的麻木和整体能量的利用。这些种群的世界性分布及其不同的栖息地要求，再加上尽管感官能力不同，在觅食策略上的基本相似之处，使它们成为阐明这些因素对吸热动物的一般影响的良好模式分类群。

The proximate currency that best explains the behaviour by animals in general and endotherms in particular, is energy.  Research has focused on energy acquisition whereas my ongoing focus is to determine how, when and why endotherms (birds and mammals) employ heterothermy (e.g., torpor).  For endotherms, defending a constant elevated body temperature confers fundamental physiological advantages.  However the benefits must be balanced against high energetic costs, which come with elevated metabolic rates.  These high costs can be offset by periods of torpor which results in reduced metabolic rates and as a consequence energetic savings.  To enhance the general applicability of our research, my students and I work on insectivorous bats and nocturnal insect eating birds (nightjars).  Despite the phylogenetic distance between them, these groups converge ecologically and physiologically.  My short-term goal is to identify patterns in approaches to heterothermy in birds and mammals by addressing questions about why some groups of endotherms employ torpor, why certain individuals employ it when they do, what the cues are that initiate the physiological response and why there is flexibility between individuals in their propensity to employ this strategy.  Over the next five years, my students and I will assess the importance of factors including inclement weather, food scarcity for reasons other than cold (e.g., seasonal drought), reproductive status, and day roost structure, on the use of torpor and overall energetics of caprimulgid birds and vespertilionid bats.  The cosmopolitan distribution of these groups and their variable habitat requirements, coupled with basic similarities in foraging strategies despite differences in sensory capabilities, make them good model taxa to elucidate the general influence of these factors on endotherms.