Integrating morphology and kinematics in the scaling of hummingbird hovering metabolic rate and efficiency.

ABSTRACT: Wing kinematics and morphology are influential upon the aerodynamics of flight. However, there is a lack of studies linking these variables to metabolic costs, particularly in the context of morphological adaptation to body size. Furthermore, the conversion efficiency from chemical energy into movement by the muscles (mechanochemical efficiency) scales with mass in terrestrial quadrupeds, but this scaling relationship has not been demonstrated within flying vertebrates. Positive scaling of efficiency with body size may reduce the metabolic costs of flight for relatively larger species. Here, we assembled a dataset of morphological, kinematic, and metabolic data on hovering hummingbirds to explore the influence of wing morphology, efficiency, and mass on hovering metabolic rate (HMR). We hy

SUBMITTER: Groom DJE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5832699 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature