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On the interplay between hypothermia and reproduction in a high arctic ungulate
For free-ranging animals living in seasonal environments, hypometabolism (lowered metabolic rate) and hypothermia (lowered body temperature) can be effective physiological strategies to conserve energy when forage resources are low. To what extent such strategies are adopted by large mammals living...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6992616/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32001737 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58298-8 |
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author | Schmidt, Niels M. Grøndahl, Carsten Evans, Alina L. Desforges, Jean-Pierre Blake, John Hansen, Lars H. Beumer, Larissa T. Mosbacher, Jesper B. Stelvig, Mikkel Greunz, Eva M. Chimienti, Marianna van Beest, Floris M. |
author_facet | Schmidt, Niels M. Grøndahl, Carsten Evans, Alina L. Desforges, Jean-Pierre Blake, John Hansen, Lars H. Beumer, Larissa T. Mosbacher, Jesper B. Stelvig, Mikkel Greunz, Eva M. Chimienti, Marianna van Beest, Floris M. |
author_sort | Schmidt, Niels M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | For free-ranging animals living in seasonal environments, hypometabolism (lowered metabolic rate) and hypothermia (lowered body temperature) can be effective physiological strategies to conserve energy when forage resources are low. To what extent such strategies are adopted by large mammals living under extreme conditions, as those encountered in the high Arctic, is largely unknown, especially for species where the gestation period overlaps with the period of lowest resource availability (i.e. winter). Here we investigated for the first time the level to which high arctic muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) adopt hypothermia and tested the hypothesis that individual plasticity in the use of hypothermia depends on reproductive status. We measured core body temperature over most of the gestation period in both free-ranging muskox females in Greenland and captive female muskoxen in Alaska. We found divergent overwintering strategies according to reproductive status, where pregnant females maintained stable body temperatures during winter, while non-pregnant females exhibited a temporary decrease in their winter body temperature. These results show that muskox females use hypothermia during periods of resource scarcity, but also that the use of this strategy may be limited to non-reproducing females. Our findings suggest a trade-off between metabolically-driven energy conservation during winter and sustaining foetal growth, which may also apply to other large herbivores living in highly seasonal environments elsewhere. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6992616 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-69926162020-02-05 On the interplay between hypothermia and reproduction in a high arctic ungulate Schmidt, Niels M. Grøndahl, Carsten Evans, Alina L. Desforges, Jean-Pierre Blake, John Hansen, Lars H. Beumer, Larissa T. Mosbacher, Jesper B. Stelvig, Mikkel Greunz, Eva M. Chimienti, Marianna van Beest, Floris M. Sci Rep Article For free-ranging animals living in seasonal environments, hypometabolism (lowered metabolic rate) and hypothermia (lowered body temperature) can be effective physiological strategies to conserve energy when forage resources are low. To what extent such strategies are adopted by large mammals living under extreme conditions, as those encountered in the high Arctic, is largely unknown, especially for species where the gestation period overlaps with the period of lowest resource availability (i.e. winter). Here we investigated for the first time the level to which high arctic muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) adopt hypothermia and tested the hypothesis that individual plasticity in the use of hypothermia depends on reproductive status. We measured core body temperature over most of the gestation period in both free-ranging muskox females in Greenland and captive female muskoxen in Alaska. We found divergent overwintering strategies according to reproductive status, where pregnant females maintained stable body temperatures during winter, while non-pregnant females exhibited a temporary decrease in their winter body temperature. These results show that muskox females use hypothermia during periods of resource scarcity, but also that the use of this strategy may be limited to non-reproducing females. Our findings suggest a trade-off between metabolically-driven energy conservation during winter and sustaining foetal growth, which may also apply to other large herbivores living in highly seasonal environments elsewhere. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-01-30 /pmc/articles/PMC6992616/ /pubmed/32001737 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58298-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Schmidt, Niels M. Grøndahl, Carsten Evans, Alina L. Desforges, Jean-Pierre Blake, John Hansen, Lars H. Beumer, Larissa T. Mosbacher, Jesper B. Stelvig, Mikkel Greunz, Eva M. Chimienti, Marianna van Beest, Floris M. On the interplay between hypothermia and reproduction in a high arctic ungulate |
title | On the interplay between hypothermia and reproduction in a high arctic ungulate |
title_full | On the interplay between hypothermia and reproduction in a high arctic ungulate |
title_fullStr | On the interplay between hypothermia and reproduction in a high arctic ungulate |
title_full_unstemmed | On the interplay between hypothermia and reproduction in a high arctic ungulate |
title_short | On the interplay between hypothermia and reproduction in a high arctic ungulate |
title_sort | on the interplay between hypothermia and reproduction in a high arctic ungulate |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6992616/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32001737 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58298-8 |
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