1979/04/01 by David Vleck · 2 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Engineering · Environmental Science · Mathematics · #Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies #Animal science #Basal metabolic rate #Bat Biology and Ecology Studies #Biology #Burrow #Digging #Ecology #Energy cost #Energy expenditure #Energy requirement #Engineering #Environmental science #Fossorial #Geography #Geotechnical engineering #Hydrology (agriculture) #Mathematics #Physiological and biochemical adaptations #Statistics
paper · doi:10.1086/physzool.52.2.30152558
crossref issued 1979/04/01 · crossref published 1979/04/01 · crossref published-print 1979/04/01 · openalex publication_date 1979/04/01 · crossref created 2016/01/07 · crossref deposited 2018/07/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30 · crossref indexed 2026/08/04
Thomomys bottae maintain body temperature (Tb) at 36 ± 0.3 C at ambient temperatures (Ta) between 5 and 25 C. At Ta greater than 25 C Tb increases with Ta. Rate of oxygen consumption at Ta below 25 C is described by the equation: V̇o2 (cm3/g·h) = 2.52–0.062 Ta. Minimum resting oxygen consumption is 0.84 ± 0.16 cm3/g·h and occurs at Ta between 28 and 30 C. Oxygen consumption during burrowing was measured in four different soil types and a cost-of-burrowing model developed to fit these data. The model can be used to estimate the energy devoted to burrowing by free-living pocket gophers. Energy cost of burrowing varies with soil density and cohesiveness, burrow size, and burrow structure. Depending on soil type, burrowing can require 360–3,400 times as much energy as moving the same distance across the surface. The high energy cost of burrowing suggests that energy conservation may be particularly important to fossorial animals. The low basal metabolic rates and thermal conductance can be viewed as adaptations to conserve energy rather than adaptations to heat stress. The cost-of-burrowing model should be generally applicable to other fossorial rodents.