Mass or pace? Seasonal energy management in wintering boreal passerines.

ABSTRACT: Research on winter energy management in small vertebrates has focused on the regulation of body mass (BM) within a framework of starvation-predation trade-off. Winter-acclimatized birds exhibit a seasonal increase in both BM and basal metabolic rate (BMR), although the patterns of co-variation between the two traits remain unknown. We studied this co-variation in three different species of wild titmice, great, blue and willow tits, originating from two boreal regions at different latitudes. Seasonal change in BM and BMR was inter-dependent, particularly in the great tit; however, by contrast, no seasonal change was observed in the willow tit. BMR changed non-linearly in concert with BM with a peak in midwinter for both blue and great tits, whereas such non-linear pattern in willow tit was

SUBMITTER: Broggi J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6394691 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature