Phenotypic plasticity in the scaling of avian basal metabolic rate.

ABSTRACT: Many birds exhibit short-term, reversible adjustments in basal metabolic rate (BMR), but the overall contribution of phenotypic plasticity to avian metabolic diversity remains unclear. The available BMR data include estimates from birds living in natural environments and captive-raised birds in more homogenous, artificial environments. All previous analyses of interspecific variation in BMR have pooled these data. We hypothesized that phenotypic plasticity is an important contributor to interspecific variation in avian BMR, and that captive-raised populations exhibit general differences in BMR compared to wild-caught populations. We tested this hypothesis by fitting general linear models to BMR data for 231 bird species, using the generalized least-squares approach to correct for phylogene

SUBMITTER: McKechnie AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1560247 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature