Effect of chronic low body temperature on feeding and gut passage in a plethodontid salamander |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156 83111, Iran;2. Foolad Institute of Technology, Fooladshahr, Isfahan 84916 63763, Iran;1. Sorbonne Universités UPMC Univ Paris 6, CNRS, Institut des Sciences de la Terre de Paris (ISTeP), 4 place Jussieu – BC 19, 75005 Paris, France;2. Département Histoire de la Terre, Museum National d′Histoire Naturelle, UMR 7207 (CR2P), Sorbonne Universités, MNHN/CNRS/UPMC, Bâtiment de Géologie, Paris Cedex 05 F-75231, France;3. Université Paris-Est, Laboratoire Modélisation et Simulation Multi Echelle, MSME UMR 8208 CNRS, 61 avenue du Général de Gaulle, 94010 Créteil Cedex, France;4. Università degli Studi Roma Tre Dept. of Mathematics & Physics, Via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Rome, Italy;1. Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution “Scientific Research Institute of Physiology and Basic Medicine”, Novosibirsk, Russia;2. The Federal Research Center “Institute of Cytology and Genetics”, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia;3. School of Psychology, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan, R.O.C.;1. MTA-ELTE Theoretical Biology and Evolutionary Ecology Research Group, Department of Plant Systematics, Ecology and Theoretical Biology, L. Eötvös University, Pázmány P. sétány 1/C, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary;2. Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Szent István University, Páter K. u. 1, H-2103 Gödöllő, Hungary;3. Center for Agribusiness Biotechnology Research, Almeria University, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, ES-04120 Almeria, Spain |
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| Abstract: | Although feeding in some plethodontid salamander species, such as Dusky Salamanders (Desmognathus, family Plethodontidae), occurs at short-term (acute) low temperature below 5 °C, it is unknown whether feeding, digestion, and gut passage continue to occur during periods of long-term (chronic) low temperature. We performed a controlled laboratory experiment to examine the effect of several chronic low environmental temperatures on both feeding and gut passage in semiaquatic Spotted Dusky Salamanders (D. conanti). We quantified salamander feeding and defecation for different experimental groups maintained for many weeks at a constant temperature of 4, 7, 10, or 13 °C. Although feeding frequency, number of prey items consumed per feeding, and defecation frequency were significantly less for individuals at 4 °C than for individuals at 10 or 13 °C, salamanders continued to feed, defecate, and maintain body mass for 12 weeks at 4 °C. The ratio of the number of fecal pellets produced to the number of prey items consumed each week by individuals did not significantly decrease at 4 °C, which indicates gut passage was sustained at this temperature. Because both time between feeding and time between defecation were similarly affected by prolonged low temperature, the significant decrease in feeding frequency at 4 °C may depend, in part, on a decrease in digestive function and an extended time for gut passage at low temperature. We conclude that most individuals of D. conanti can feed, digest, and maintain body mass for several months at constant low temperature down to 4 °C. Our results support a growing body of data that indicate some plethodontid salamanders may acquire energy at environmental temperatures only a few degrees above freezing. |
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| Keywords: | Defecation Digestion Energetics Feeding Salamander Temperature |
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