Electronic Resource
Palo Alto, Calif.
:
Annual Reviews
Annual Review of Physiology
62 (2000), S. 179-205
ISSN:
0066-4278
Source:
Annual Reviews Electronic Back Volume Collection 1932-2001ff
Topics:
Medicine
,
Biology
Notes:
Abstract We use a comparative approach to examine some of the physiological traits that make flight possible. Comparisons of related fliers and runners suggest that fliers generally have higher aerobic metabolic capacities than runners but that the difference is highly dependent on the taxa studied. The high metabolic rates of fliers relative to runners, especially in insects, are correlated with high locomotory muscle cycle frequencies and low efficiences of conversion of metabolic power to mechanical power. We examine some factors that produce variation in flight respiration and energetics. Air temperature strongly affects the flight metabolic rate of some insects and birds. Flight speed interacts with flier mass, so that small fliers tend to exhibit a Jshaped power curve and larger fliers a U-shaped power curve. As body size increases, mass-specific aerobic flight metabolism decreases in most studies, but mass-specific power output is constant or increases, leading to an increase in efficiency with size. Intraspecific studies have revealed specific genetically based effects on flight metabolism and power output and multiple ecological correlates of flight capabilities.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.physiol.62.1.179
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