4.8 Article

Latitudinal but not elevational variation in blood glucose level is linked to life history across passerine birds

Journal

ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 25, Issue 10, Pages 2203-2216

Publisher

WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/ele.14097

Keywords

altitude; elevation; energy demands of thermoregulation; fecundity; latitude; life-history evolution; macrophysiology; pace-of-life syndromes; stress response; temperate and tropical birds

Categories

Funding

  1. Grantova Agentura Ceske Republiky [GA17-24782S, GA21-17125S, P506-12-2472]
  2. Czech Science Foundation

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Macrophysiological research is important for understanding global life history variation and adaptation. This study examined blood glucose variation in birds from different latitudes and elevations. The results showed that tropical birds have lower baseline blood glucose and stronger blood glucose stress response compared to temperate birds. The findings suggest a relationship between life history pace and physiological traits in birds.
Macrophysiological research is vital to our understanding of mechanisms underpinning global life history variation and adaptation to diverse environments. Here, we examined latitudinal and elevational variation in a key substrate of energy metabolism and an emerging physiological component of pace-of-life syndromes, blood glucose concentration. Our data, collected from 61 European temperate and 99 Afrotropical passerine species, revealed that baseline blood glucose increases with both latitude and elevation, whereas blood glucose stress response shows divergent directions, being stronger at low latitudes and high elevations. Low baseline glucose in tropical birds, compared to their temperate counterparts, was mainly explained by their low fecundity, consistent with the slow pace-of-life syndrome in the tropics. In contrast, elevational variation in this trait was decoupled from fecundity, implying a unique montane pace-of-life syndrome combining slow-paced life histories with fast-paced physiology. The observed patterns suggest that pace-of-life syndromes do not evolve along the single fast-slow axis.

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