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First published online September 16, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 3689-3700 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01811

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Cutaneous water loss and lipids of the stratum corneum in house sparrows Passer domesticus from arid and mesic environments

Agustí Muñoz-Garcia^* and Joseph B. Williams

Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, Aronoff Laboratory, 318 W 12th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA

View larger version (15K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. (A) Mass-specific respiratory water loss (RWL) and (B) surface-specific cutaneous water loss (CWL) in sparrows from Saudi Arabia (SA) and Ohio (OH). Asterisks represent significant differences between groups (P<0.05).

View larger version (39K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. (A) Thin layer chromatograph of the polar lipids in the SC of house sparrows. (B) Profile of lipid standards (Bi) and cerebrosides, ceramides and cholesterol from the extracted lipids in the SC of house sparrows obtained using densitometry (Bii). Chol, cholesterol; Cer, ceramide; Cerebr, cerebroside; C1-C3, cerebrosides 1-3. a.u., arbitrary units.

View larger version (15K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Cutaneous water loss (CWL) in desert (open circles) and mesic (filled circles, solid lines) sparrows as a function of the percentage of free fatty acids (FFA), ceramides and cerebrosides. Only the correlations for sparrows from Ohio were significant; for regression equations, see text.

View larger version (12K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. Relationship between surface-specific cutaneous water loss (CWL), calculated by Meeh's equation (Walsberg and King 1978), and log(body mass) for 21 species of birds. Desert species are represented by open circles, whereas mesic species are indicated by filled circles.

View larger version (18K): [in a new window]   Fig. 5. Functional model for the structure of the SC in desert house sparrows. See text for explanation.

View larger version (13K): [in a new window]   Fig. 6. Relationship between surface-specific CWL and mass-specific oxygen consumption in the sparrows from Saudi Arabia (open circles) and Ohio (solid circles). Regression was only significant in the sparrows from Saudi Arabia; mass-specific oxygen consumption (kJ g-1 day-1)=-48.1xSurface-specific CWL (g H2O cm-2 day-1)+1.94 (solid line; r2=0.56, P<0.01).