Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: An adult beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) wearing a bio-logging tag dives during an energetics study at the Georgia Aquarium (Atlanta, GA, USA). The tag monitors swimming stroke frequency via acceleration, which is matched to post-dive metabolic rate measured when the trained whale surfaces within a metabolic hood floating on the water surface. The resulting metabolic cost-per-stroke and cost of transport are subsequently used in bioenergetic models to determine the energetic balance of wild, endangered beluga whales in Cook Inlet, Alaska. Photo credit: Georgia Aquarium.
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INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
COMMENTARY
Disentangling physiological and physical explanations for body size-dependent thermal tolerance
Summary: Size-dependent thermal tolerance can arise without any differences in the temperature dependence of underlying physiological processes and due solely to physical differences in heat exchange with the environment.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
Time-compensated sun compass in juvenile sprat (Sprattus sprattus) reveals the onset of migratory readiness
Summary: Migratory readiness was unveiled while testing sprats for sun compass orientation. Animals tested in early August showed only random, undirected orientation, whereas fish tested in late August oriented significantly.
Anatomy and mechanisms of vocal production in harvest mice
Summary: ‘Loud calls’ or ‘songs’ are long-distance communication signals that are widespread in the Reithrodontomyini and Baiomyini tribes. The term ‘long-distance call’ has different quantitative meanings among Neotominae.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
Looking beyond the mean: quantile regression for comparative physiologists
Summary: Comparative physiologists often focus on mean responses. Quantile regression is a tool that can help physiologists ask and answer more questions about nature by investigating more of the response distribution.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Hierarchical processing of feature, egocentric and relational information for spatial orientation in domestic chicks
Summary: Chicks prioritize local features over egocentric information, and use spatial relationships as a last resort for orientation.
Kinematics and muscle activity of pectoral fins in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) station holding in turbulent flow
Summary: Synchronized high-speed video and electromyography of pectoral fins in station-holding trout reveal active and passive control.
The interaction of in vivo muscle operating lengths and passive stiffness in rat hindlimbs
Summary: Muscle operating length is crucial for force production in vivo. Passive stiffness may restrict muscles to slightly shorter operating lengths, potentially limiting force capacity during locomotion.
The incubation environment does not explain significant variation in heart rate plasticity among avian embryos
Summary: Individual avian embryos exhibit significant variation in how they respond to temperature, which cannot be explained by the incubation they experienced.
Hibernating female big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) adjust huddling and drinking behaviour, but not arousal frequency, in response to low humidity
Highlighted Article: Female big brown bats maintain more compact huddles and increase drinking behaviour when hibernating in a dry environment versus a humid environment. Adjusting hibernation behaviour could allow this species to maintain water balance across a range of humidities.
Energy allocation is revealed while behavioural performance persists after fire disturbance
Summary: Contrasting ‘compensation’ and ‘performance’ models for energetics–behaviour linkage in the context of fire disturbance indicate the positive link (‘performance’) predominates, while allocation, elevated metabolism and suppressed exploration are the result of fire disturbance.
Conservation energetics of beluga whales: using resting and swimming metabolism to understand threats to an endangered population
Highlighted Article: Elevated energetic costs for rest and continuous locomotor activity by beluga whales limit underwater escape from anthropogenic threats.
Thrust production and chordal flexion of the flukes of bottlenose dolphins performing tail stands at different efforts
Highlighted Article: The tail stand of dolphins is an equilibrium of gravitational, buoyant and fluid forces balanced by kinematics so that as effort increases, oscillatory frequency and fluke flexibility increase.
Heart rate reduction during voluntary deep diving in free-ranging loggerhead sea turtles
Summary: The heart rate reduction in free-ranging loggerhead turtles during diving is affected by dive depth.
The fluid dynamics of barnacle feeding
Summary: Barnacles rely on an asymmetrical feeding current in quiescent water, which enables them to capture evasive prey.
ECR SPOTLIGHTS
2023 JEB Outstanding Paper Prize shortlist and winner
The JEB Editors are delighted to announce the shortlisted authors for the 2023 JEB Outstanding Paper Prize. Read the winning paper - Tiny spies: mosquito antennae are sensitive sensors for eavesdropping on frog calls - by Hoover Pantoja-Sanchez and Brian Leavell from Ximena Bernal's lab at Purdue University, USA.
JEB Science Communication Workshop for ECRs
If you’re an early-career researcher interested in science communication and are attending the SEB Annual Conference in Prague this summer, come a day early and join the JEB Editors at a sci comm workshop to learn the key writing skills needed to promote your research to a broad audience beyond your peers (1 July at 14.30-17.30). Places are limited to 24 attendees, and applicants should apply through the SEB registration page by 30 April 2024.
Bridging the gap between controlled conditions and natural habitats in understanding behaviour
Novel technologies enable behavioural experiments with non-model species, in naturalistic habitats and with underexplored behaviours. In their Commentary, Scholz and colleagues discuss how to obtain a deeper understanding of the natural ecology and lifestyle of study animals.
How a macrourid fish remains buoyant at depths it should be unable to reach
Fish with swimbladders should not be capable of descending below 7200m, but when Alan Jamieson and Todd Bond spotted a macrourid fish at 7259m, they knew they had seen something miraculous. Working with Imantes Priede, they reveal that the swimbladder of a 1 kg fish could hold 37.9 g of oxygen, sufficient to offset the weight of the fish's bones, and take 221-440 days to fill, which is plausible because it takes years for the fish to descend to such depths.
ECR Workshop on Positive Peer Review
Are you an ECR looking for tips on how to write concise, astute and useful manuscript reviews? If so, join the JEB Editors at a 2-hour JEB-sponsored Workshop on Positive Peer Review at the Canadian Society of Zoologists annual meeting in Moncton on 9 May 2024 at 13.00-15.00. There are 25 spaces for ECRs and selection is first come, first serve. To sign up, check the ECR Workshop box when you register for the CSZ meeting.