Combining accelerometry with allometry for estimating daily energy expenditure in joules when in-lab calibration is unavailable.

ABSTRACT:

Background

All behaviour requires energy, and measuring energy expenditure in standard units (joules) is key to linking behaviour to ecological processes. Animal-borne accelerometers are commonly used to infer proxies of energy expenditure, termed 'dynamic body acceleration' (DBA). However, converting acceleration proxies (m/s²) to standard units (watts) involves costly in-lab respirometry measurements, and there is a lack of viable substitutes for empirical calibration relationships when these are unavailable.

Methods

We used past allometric work quantifying energy expenditure during resting and locomotion as a function of body mass to calibrate DBA. We used the resulting 'power calibration equation' to estimate daily energy expenditure (DEE) using two models: (1

SUBMITTER: Chakravarty P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10228015 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature