INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
COMMENTARY
- Oxygen- and capacity-limited thermal tolerance: bridging ecology and physiology
Summary: In light of progressive impacts of climate warming on ecosystems, a physiological understanding of organismal thermal ranges, responses and tolerances is critical. The concept of oxygen- and capacity-limited thermal tolerance develops such an understanding by integrating findings from whole-animal to molecular levels.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
- Resonance frequencies of honeybee (Apis mellifera) wings
Summary: Normal modes of honeybee wings do not match the wingbeat frequency or harmonics, suggesting that the wings act as stiff elements when flapped.
- Differences in molecular mechanisms of K+ clearance in the auditory sensory epithelium of birds and mammals
Summary: K+ is the major charge carrier in the vertebrate inner ear, yet marked differences exist between birds and mammals in gene expression associated with K+ clearance.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- How innate is locomotion in precocial animals? A study on the early development of spatio-temporal gait variables and gait symmetry in piglets
Highlighted Article: Coordinated movement patterns in piglets are not entirely innate; instead, rapid neuromotor maturation also takes place in these precocial animals.
- Kinematics of ram filter feeding and beat–glide swimming in the northern anchovy Engraulis mordax
Summary: The anchovy Engraulis mordax shows substantial modifications to swimming kinematics from routine behavior when ram filter feeding.
- Upper lethal temperatures in three cold-tolerant insects are higher in winter than in summer
Editors' Choice: Some insects have an increased heat tolerance in winter compared with summer, which is an undocumented and paradoxical phenomenon in insects.
- Intestinal digestive enzyme modulation in house sparrow nestlings occurs within 24 h of a change in diet composition
Summary: House sparrows quickly adjust to new diets with differing protein and carbohydrate content when they are less than a week old.
- Sex differences in the utilization of essential and non-essential amino acids in Lepidoptera
Summary: Young adult male moths oxidize greater amounts of larva-derived amino acids than females, and more nectar-derived amino acids after feeding. Under starvation conditions, adult females exhibit the opposite pattern.
- Lowering metabolic rate mitigates muscle atrophy in western fence lizards
Summary: Although many mechanisms can slow skeletal muscle atrophy in hibernating vertebrates, a lowered metabolic rate is sufficient to mitigate muscle atrophy in fence lizards.
- The effect of thermal acclimation on aerobic scope and critical swimming speed in Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar
Summary: A thorough assessment of metabolic rates and swimming capacity at five different acclimation temperatures, and the ecological relevance of aerobic scope models in Atlantic salmon.
- Orientation of native versus translocated juvenile lesser spotted eagles (Clanga pomarina) on the first autumn migration
Highlighted Article: In 2009, most juvenile eagles translocated from Latvia to Germany departed earlier than native juveniles and adults, and consequently failed to learn the species' traditional eastern detour around the Mediterranean.
- Insulin-like growth factor signaling regulates developmental trajectory associated with diapause in embryos of the annual killifish Austrofundulus limnaeus
Summary: Insulin-like growth factor signaling plays a critical role in regulating entrance into embryonic diapause and may determine many of the complex life history characteristics unique to annual killifishes.
- Labrid cleaner fishes show kinematic convergence as juveniles despite variation in morphology
Summary: In wrasses, jaw movements during biting are influenced by a feature on the premaxilla; labrichthyines show biting patterns distinct from those of other wrasses.
- Increasing the illumination slowly over several weeks protects against light damage in the eyes of the crustacean Mysis relicta
Summary: A previously unknown form of slow light adaptation, developing over time scales of weeks to months, is identified that significantly improves tolerance to bright-light exposures in the eyes of mysid crustaceans.
- Escape jumping by three age-classes of water striders from smooth, wavy and bubbling water surfaces
Summary: The locomotion performance of water striders is reduced with increasing water surface roughness, particularly for younger age classes.
- Echo-acoustic scanning with noseleaf and ears in phyllostomid bats
Highlighted Article: Echolocating bats move their noseleaf (for sound emission) and their ears for fast and directed echo-acoustic exploration of their surroundings.
- Individual quality via sensitivity to cysteine availability in a melanin-based honest signaling system
Summary: A physiological mechanism decreasing the sensitivity to dietary cysteine is intrinsic to low-quality male house sparrows and prevents them from developing large bibs indicative of high quality.
- Stable carbon isotopes in breath reveal fast metabolic incorporation rates and seasonally variable but rapid fat turnover in the common shrew (Sorex araneus)
Summary: Shrews fuel their metabolism rapidly from ingested food and have such a high body fat turnover that they would starve within 4.2 h in winter without food.