Publication Date:
2001-02-07
Description:
Locomotor activity by diving marine mammals is accomplished while breath-holding and often exceeds predicted aerobic capacities. Video sequences of freely diving seals and whales wearing submersible cameras reveal a behavioral strategy that improves energetic efficiency in these animals. Prolonged gliding (greater than 78% descent duration) occurred during dives exceeding 80 meters in depth. Gliding was attributed to buoyancy changes with lung compression at depth. By modifying locomotor patterns to take advantage of these physical changes, Weddell seals realized a 9.2 to 59.6% reduction in diving energetic costs. This energy-conserving strategy allows marine mammals to increase aerobic dive duration and achieve remarkable depths despite limited oxygen availability when submerged.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Williams, T M -- Davis, R W -- Fuiman, L A -- Francis, J -- Le Boeuf, B J -- Horning, M -- Calambokidis, J -- Croll, D A -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2000 Apr 7;288(5463):133-6.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biology, EMS-A316, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA. williams@darwin.ucsc.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10753116" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Diving/*physiology
;
Dolphins/*physiology
;
Energy Metabolism
;
Hydrostatic Pressure
;
Lung/physiology
;
Lung Volume Measurements
;
*Oxygen Consumption
;
Seals, Earless/*physiology
;
Swimming/*physiology
;
Video Recording
;
Whales/*physiology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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