Issues

Summary: Integrative models composed of multiple cause-and-effect hypotheses may rapidly uncover the mechanisms setting organismal thermal limits.

Summary: Muscle contraction dynamics during forefoot strike running may balance the effects of longer plantarflexor moment arm lengths in determining medial and lateral gastrocnemius muscle size.

Highlighted Article: Through physiological and biochemical analysis, a previously undescribed orbital lipid depot discovered in the thirteen-lined ground squirrel is hypothesized to be a vascular rete.

Summary: In zebrafish, carbohydrate and lipid were the major fuels during fasting, but carbohydrate oxidation increased immediately after feeding, while protein usage predominated at later times.

Summary: Destructive bark beetles use a spring-loaded mechanism to produce variable songs.

Highlighted Article: New evidence shows that elaborate pupils, such as those found in benthic elasmobranchs (e.g. skates), may aid in camouflaging the eye.

Summary: Field-based physiological hearing measurements of a puffin and murre show they hear like other birds. The method provides clear responses, reduced environmental noise and is transferrable to other avian taxa.

Summary: The relationship between swimming mode, turning behavior and energetic costs in coral reef fishes is examined for station-hold swimming in wave-induced water motions.

Summary: In ducklings, skeletal muscle mitochondrial ROS release remains low until a threshold level of mitochondrial inactivity is exceeded.

Summary: Migration speed of wild Nathusius' bats conforms with expected optimal travel speed inferred from measurements of metabolic rate in conspecifics flying in a wind tunnel.

Summary: Responses of kelp material properties to season, growth and wounds help kelp survive a wide range of flow conditions in their lifetimes.

Highlighted Article: Buzz-pollinating bumblebees differ in the type of vibrations produced while visiting the same flower, and floral species affects the transmission properties of those vibrations.

Summary: The type of Wolbachia infection determines its effect on Drosophila melanogaster female fecundity via metabolism of juvenile hormone.

Summary: Antioxidant defense regulation in response to acute cold exposure in the Chinese soft-shelled turtle is not achieved at the transcriptional level, but rather by high constitutive antioxidant enzyme activities.

Summary: Intense turbulence causes echinoid larvae to become suddenly and permanently responsive to chemical settlement cues in a situation reminiscent of long-term potentiation in learning and memory.

Highlighted Article: The visuomotor control of avian pecking is poorly understood. Visual distortion caused by prisms indicates that vision plays a role in pecking adjustments only before movement initiation in pigeons, whereas crows may use vison during movement.

Summary: Forward flight speed of flies, while flying in a magnetically levitated (MAGLEV) flight mill, is controlled by body pitch and a collection of wing kinematic variables.

Summary: Male sex determination in daphnids is controlled by photoperiod and temperature, which may act by increasing levels of the Met subunit of the methyl farnesoate receptor.

Summary: The combination of stereotypic movements of the shoulder joint and flexibility in the elbow and carpal joints makes eastern moles extremely effective diggers in both loose and compact substrates.

Summary: Zebra finches show differential responses in erythrocyte variables to long- and short-term physical activity. Short-term phenotypic flexibility in red blood cell size probably influences blood properties and blood functions.

Highlighted Article: White sharks aggregating near seal colonies swim slowly and employ unpowered gliding in descents, presumably to reduce energetic cost of swimming while increasing encounter rates with fast-swimming seals.

Summary: Historical, population-level exposure to invasive predatory fire ants (and associated stress) affects the immune consequences of early-life exposure to a stress-relevant hormone.