Issues

Summary: Physiological research informs environmental policy by improving understanding of organismal and ecosystem responses to stressors. Strengthening collaboration, communication and engagement ensures conservation strategies remain effective and resilient to climate change.

Summary: A comprehensive review of the integrative biology of decoy coloration in lizards, focusing on its mechanisms, function, evolution and potential research directions.

Highlighted Article: Evidence that during arousal from hibernation, 13-lined ground squirrels undergo rapid, 2.5-fold increases in arterial oxygen saturation, suggesting transient hypoxia–reoxygenation.

Highlighted Article: Behavioral data from multi-sensor tags on humpback whale mothers and calves suggest that adults actively adjust their buoyancy during shallow dives. One potential mechanism underlying this adjustment is the unique respiratory system of baleen whales, particularly the laryngeal sac.

Summary: Development of a novel brightfield micro-PIV system to acquire the first flow measurements around freely flying tiny insects.

Summary: This multidisciplinary study provides the first estimates of visual acuity in a lacertid lizard, revealing how it perceives its environment, detects predators and communicates visually.

Summary: Actin treadmilling constitutes a minor energy cost in differentiated gill and mantle tissues of adult oysters.

Summary: Fascicles in the caudal dorsal and ventral tendons of the harbor porpoise display similar mechanical properties, indicating no differences between upstroke and downstroke.

Summary: For every 1% increase in step length variability, there is a 1.1% increase in metabolic power. This suggests that step length variability contributes modestly to the cost of human walking.

Summary: Mitochondrial bioenergetics reveals a trade-off between parameters responsible for activity and those responsible for efficiency over temperature, and the clear difference in response at optimal and suboptimal temperatures.

Summary: Manipulation of membrane fatty acid composition through diet led to behavioral, metabolic and physiological changes reminiscent of those seen during winter acclimation in the eastern red spotted newt.

Highlighted Article: Lovebirds time their landings on a swinging perch to favor the extremes of perch motion at lower velocity. Using a shallow approach trajectory, lovebirds reduce their landing torque and use horizontal landing force to decelerate for stable landings.

Summary: Male cicadas (Meimuna opalifera) synchronously emit two types of calls and switch the call types when positioned close together.

Highlighted Article: Manipulation of offspring food provisions by mothers of the bee Ceratina calcarata reveals differences in gene expression associated with worker-like division of labour.

Summary: Freeze-tolerant crickets (Gryllus veletis) modify their actin cytoskeleton in select tissues to prevent freeze-induced cellular damage, while freeze-intolerant crickets of the same species experience irreparable cytoskeleton damage during freezing.