Temperature Biology of Animals

by Andrew Cossins

Overview

Temperature is one facet in the mosaic of physical and biotic factors that describes the niche of an animal. Ofthe physical factors it is ecologically the most important. for it is a factor that is all-pervasive and one that. in most environments. lacks spatial or temporal constancy. Evolution has produced a wide variety of adaptive strategies and tactics to exploit or deal with this variable environmental factor. The ease with which temperature can be measured. and controlled experimentally. together with its widespread influence on the affairs of animals. has understandably led to a large. dispersed literature. In spite of this no recent book provides a comprehensive treatment of the biology of animals in relation to temperature. Our intention in writing this book was to fill that gap. We hope we have provided a modern statement with a critical synthesis of this diverse field. which will be suitable and stimulating for both advanced undergraduate and post­ graduate students of biology. This book is emphatically not intended as a monographical review. as thermal biology is such a diverse. developed discipline that it could not be encompassed within the confines of a book of this size.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789401079068
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	10/12/2011
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1987
Pages:	339
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

Table of Contents

1 Thermal energy and the thermal environment.- 1.1 Thermal energy and temperature.- 1.2 Life, the low-temperature phenomenon.- 1.3 Mechanisms of heat transfer.- 1.4 The thermal environment.- 1.5 Conclusions.- 2 The direct effects of temperature changes.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Rate–temperature curves – experimental considerations.- 2.3 Empirical descriptions of rate effects.- 2.4 Theoretical equations.- 2.5 The classification of biological processes by temperature coefficients.- 2.6 Theory of absolute reaction rates.- 2.7 Destructive effects of temperature.- 2.8 Temperature optima of biological processes.- 2.9 Low Q10 and temperature-independent processes.- 2.10 Conclusions.- 3 Body temperature in bradymetabolic animals.- 3.1 Thermal inertia – the contribution of body size to the stabilization of Tb.- 3.2 Selection of a preferred body temperature in ectotherms – an adaptive behavioural response.- 3.3 Body temperature in field conditions.- 3.4 Ecological significance of body temperature – costs and benefits.- 3.5 Is preferred Tb the temperature for optimal functioning?.- 3.6 Endothermic animals.- 3.7 Why set Tb between 30°C and 45°C?.- 3.8 Endothermic insects.- 3.9 The need for ‘warm-up’.- 3.10 Thermoregulation in flight.- 3.11 Thermoregulation in honeybee swarms.- 3.12 Ecological costs and benefits of endothermy in insects.- 3.13 Endothermic fish.- 3.14 Endothermic reptiles.- 3.15 Conclusions.- 4 Body temperature in tachymetabolic animals.- 4.1 Body temperature.- 4.2 Distribution of heat within the body.- 4.3 Metabolism and ambient temperature.- 4.4 Heat production.- 4.5 Heat loss.- 4.6 Thermal insulation.- 4.7 Regional heterothermy.- 4.8 Thermoregulation.- 4.9 Thermoreceptors.- 4.10 Disturbances of the set-point.- 4.11 Adaptive and acclimatorymechanisms.- 4.12 Ontogenetic aspects of thermoregulation.- 4.13 Conclusions.- 5 Rate compensations and capacity adaptations.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Patterns of compensation.- 5.3 Temperature acclimation.- 5.4 Seasonal effects upon acclimation.- 5.5 Cellular mechanisms of compensation.- 5.6 Genotypic adaptation to temperature.- 5.7 Conclusions.- 6 Thermal injury, thermal death and resistance adaptation.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Methods for determining lethal limits.- 6.3 Resistance adaptation.- 6.4 Hardening.- 6.5 Causes of heat death.- 6.6 Cold injury and death.- 6.7 Mechanisms of cold tolerance.- 6.8 A cellular basis for thermal injury and death.- 6.9 Thermal tolerance in multivariate conditions.- 6.10 Lethal limits, temperature and animal distribution.- 6.11 Conclusions.- 7 Effect of temperature on reproduction, development and growth.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Reproduction.- 7.3 Development.- 7.4 Thermal limits of development and temperature-sensitive stages.- 7.5 Temperature and gene expression.- 7.6 Temperature and ageing.- 7.7 Growth.- 7.8 Populations.- 7.9 Conclusions.- References.