Issues

Summary: Mechanical processes that replace chemical processes in organismal movement can result in performance that is robust to changing temperature.

Summary: This Review summarises information on the gut–brain axis in non-mammalian vertebrates, highlighting an important lack of knowledge compared with mammals. We identify gaps for future research for a better understanding of the mechanisms governing food intake in vertebrates.

Editor's choice: Compared with other reef fishes, holocentrids have a well-developed multibank retina, an adaptation mostly found in deep-sea fishes, which may allow colour vision in dim-light settings.

Summary: Locomotion generates an increase in the metabolic rate of haematophagous bugs and changes the respiratory pattern. The energetic cost of pedestrian locomotion allows estimation of maximal walking dispersion in Chagas vectors.

Highlighted Article: Invasive bees in Fiji have greater thermal tolerance and are more desiccation resistant than the only native bee in lowland Fiji. Plant–pollinator relationships might shift with continued climate warming.

Summary: Audio-visual perception and cognitive processing, related to mate choice decisions, are dependent on the complexity of the sensory scene.

Highlighted Article: Chronic (whole-life) studies do not support a causative role for oxygen limitation in setting upper chronic thermal limits or temperature-size patterns in mayflies.

Summary: Decreasing voluntary muscle activity levels in the human triceps surae shift the plantar flexion force–angle and force–length relationships toward more dorsiflexed ankle angles and longer fascicle lengths.

Summary: Phenotypic buffering of physiology and behavior, coupled with large thermal safety margins, may be competitively advantageous for the invasive fish round goby, and enhance its invasive potential with climate change.

Highlighted Article: Precocial birds incubated at low temperature take longer to develop cold tolerance, with possible costs for energy acquisition in early life.

Summary: In crickets, freezing does not induce metabolic responses but may liberate buffered CO₂ from hemolymph. Recovery from freeze–thaw is metabolically costly, and this cost persists for several days after thaw.

Summary: Air sac oxygen profiles of emperor penguins demonstrate that air flow between the air sacs and through the lungs maintains gas exchange during dives as well as on the surface.

Summary: Metabolic consequences of cell size and ploidy vary with temperature: the small cell size of diploids appears beneficial in the warm, while triploids performed better in the cold.

Summary: Measured respiratory flow, tidal volume and lung compliance in Pacific walruses were inside reported ranges for marine mammals, confirming highly flexible lungs and reinforced conducting airways that allow them to preserve high respiratory flows over all lung volumes.

Summary: Life-long exposure to hypoxia alters hypoxic metabolic depression throughout life with age-specific effects on breathing.

Summary: Having the right information for a specific job is crucial. Echolocating bats flexibly and independently adjust different call parameters to match the sensory-motor challenges of four different tasks.

Summary: Heart rates measured in bottlenose dolphins associated with respiratory sinus arrhythmia were comparable to bradycardia measured during submerged breath-holds.

Summary: In Drosophila, monoterpenes not only act as biopesticides but also cause complex tyramine receptor 1 (TAR1)-dependent changes in behaviour and metabolism.

Summary: Trunk posture- and step-specific adjustments in global and local running mechanics are influenced by the anticipation of changes to running pattern, probably reflecting the utilization of task-dependent strategies during perturbed running.

Summary: Hatching order manipulation in a wild bird reveals interacting effects of pre- and post-natal developing conditions on early-life phenotype and potential future performance.

Summary: Humans are capable of dynamically adjusting the stiffness of the longitudinal arch of the foot in conjunction with other joints in the leg during running.