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611 results for “Body mass”
The ability to disperse large seeds, rather than body mass alone, defines the importance of animals in a hyper-diverse seed dispersal network
<p>1. Large-bodied animals play irreplaceable roles in seed dispersal, partly due to their capacity to disperse large seeds. Understanding this role at a community level has been limited by the paucity of network studies that include large vertebrates, and the almost complete absence of studies including synzoochoric dispersers. Synzoochoric dispersers can disperse seeds disproportionately large for their body size, potentially overlapping the roles of large-bodied animals. A comprehensive network, inclusive of large vertebrates and synzoochorous dispersers, is imperative to understand seed dispersal at a community level.</p> <p>2. Here, we analysed the seed dispersal network of a hyper-diverse Sundaic forest in Malaysia using local ecological knowledge and including multiple forms of endozoochorous and synzoochorous dispersal. We evaluated the extent to which three disperser traits: body mass, seed-handling ability (size of the largest seed dispersed), and diet explained the importance of animals in the network. We evaluated dispersers' relative importance using four network metrics — degree of specialisation (nested rank), species strength, within-module connectivity (z-value), and between-modules connectivity (c-value).</p> <p>3. We found that seed-handling ability had the biggest effect on a disperser's importance, with strong effects on three network metrics (species strength, ecological specialization, z-value) and moderate effects on connectivity between modules. Body mass was important in defining interactions within modules, and dietary differences defined the ecological specialisation of species in seed dispersal.</p> <p>4. Important dispersers in our network were large-seed dispersers (e.g., rats, gibbons), large-bodied animals, in particular the Asian elephant, and animals with frugivorous diets such as hornbills.</p> <p>5. Synthesis. Our work uncovers the significance of seed-handling ability in identifying pivotal seed dispersal roles in tropical rainforests. Key dispersers include large-bodied herbivores and medium-sized frugivores that could disperse large seeds by endozoochory, and smaller rodents that dispersed similar-sized seeds by synzoochory. Many of the species that emerged as particularly important for the seed dispersal network are currently threatened (e.g., the Asian elephant, gibbons, and hornbills). Their protection or reintroduction should be a top conservation priority. </p>
Data from: Individual body mass and length dataset for over 12,000 fish from Iberian streams
<p>Body size data of stream fish in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula.</p> <p>We provide a unique fish individual body size dataset collected from our own sampling and public sources in north-eastern Spain. The dataset includes individual body size measures (fork length and mass) of 12,288 individuals of 24 fish species within 10 families collected at 118 locations in large rivers and small streams. Fish were caught by one-pass electrofishing following European standard protocols. The fish dataset has information on the local instream conditions including climatic variables (i.e., temperature and precipitation), topography (i.e., altitude), nutrient concentration (i.e., total phosphorus and nitrates), and the IMPRESS values (a measure of cumulative human impacts in lotic ecosystems). The potential uses of this new fish dataset are manifold, including developing size-based indices to further estimate the ecological status of freshwater ecosystems, allometric models, and analysis of variation in body size structure along environmental gradients.</p>
Advance social information allows red crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) to better conserve body mass and intestinal mass during food stress
<p>Animals prepare for fluctuations in resources through advance storage of energy, planned reduction in energy costs or by moving elsewhere. Unpredictable fluctuations in food, however, may be particularly challenging if animals cannot avoid negative impacts on body condition. Social information may help animals to cope with unpredictable resources if cues from individuals with low foraging success give advance warning about deteriorating conditions. This study investigates the impact of social information on behavior and physiology of food-restricted captive red crossbills (<em>Loxia curvirostra</em>). Birds were restricted to two short feeding periods per day to simulate a decline in resources and were given social information from food-restricted neighbors either before (i.e., predictive) or during (i.e., parallel) the food restriction period. Focal birds better conserved body mass during food restriction if social information was predictive of the decline in resources. Crossbills with predictive information ate more food, had larger intestinal mass and better conserved pectoral muscle size at the end of the restriction period compared to those with parallel social information. These data suggest that birds can use social information to alter behavioral and physiological responses during food shortage in ways that may confer an adaptive advantage for survival.</p>
Chipmunk body mass variations and life-histories in a pulsed resource ecosystem
<p><span>Phenotypic plasticity is the most immediate mechanism of adaptative response to environmental change. Studying plastic changes in response to fluctuating environments provides insights into how such adjustments may impact life-history traits. Here, we used a 14-year dataset of repeated body mass measurements in male eastern chipmunks (<em>Tamias striatus</em>) to assess the extent of plastic changes for this trait in a resource pulse ecosystem. We first determined the magnitude of variation in body mass at the population level in response to the drastic change in food resource availability from American beech tree seeds (<em>Fagus grandifolia</em>). Males that emerged in the spring from winter torpor following a non-mast year had a lower body mass than males emerging after a mast year, but they tended to recover this loss by mid-June. We found significant among-individual variation in spring body mass plasticity (i.e., individual by environment interaction, I x E). We then investigated the relationships between individual spring body mass plasticity, longevity and lifetime reproductive success. Interestingly, heavier males lived longer than lighter males, but more plastic males had a lower longevity and lower lifetime reproductive success than less plastic males. The report of such plastic response in a stochastic resource system provides valuable insights into the interplay between the costs and benefits of phenotypic plasticity as an adaptation to environmental fluctuations.</span></p>
Fruit-feeding butterfly populations respond to variation in adult food availability: evidence from longitudinal body mass and abundance data
<p>The degree to which variation in adult food availability affects the population dynamics of a species depends on its position on the capital-income breeding continuum. The long-lived butterflies that feed on fruits as adults constitute an example of Lepidoptera with a high degree of income breeding. For three species of fruit-feeding butterflies in Uganda, we assessed the contribution of the income to breeding in the wild, and the consequences of variation in fruit availability for body mass and population dynamics. We interpreted body mass loss within individuals as well as younger individuals having higher body mass than older ones as evidence for the depletion of capital reserves. Despite large sample sizes, we were able to show only modest body mass loss in one species, indicating that large-bodied fruit-feeding butterflies are functionally income breeders in the wild. Butterfly body mass was sensitive to environmental factors, although the responses to fruit availability and weather parameters were dominated by interactive effects. In all three species, periods of higher availability of fruit were followed by periods of higher adult abundance three to five months later, fitting the egg-to-adult time. Our results suggest that adult food is rapidly used for reproduction so that body mass remains stable and population size responds to adult food availability. For these income breeding species, the frequent periods of low adult food availability may select for extended adult longevity for the purpose of postponing reproduction to the onset of more favorable conditions. </p>
Seychelles warblers with silver spoons: juvenile body mass is a lifelong predictor of annual survival, but not annual reproduction or senescence
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The environment experienced during development, and its impact on intrinsic condition, can have lasting outcomes for individual phenotypes and could contribute to variation in adult senescence trajectories. However, the nature of this relationship in wild populations remains uncertain, owing to the difficulties in summarizing natal condition and in long-term monitoring of individuals from free-roaming long-lived species. Utilizing a closely monitored, closed population of Seychelles warblers (<em>Acrocephalus sechellensis</em>), we determine whether juvenile body mass is associated with natal socio-environmental factors, specific genetic traits linked to fitness in this system, survival to adulthood and senescence-related traits. Juveniles born in seasons with higher food availability and into smaller natal groups (i.e. fewer competitors) were heavier. In contrast, there were no associations between juvenile body mass and the genetic traits. Furthermore, size-corrected mass - but not separate measures of natal food availability, group size or genetic traits - was positively associated with survival to adulthood, suggesting juvenile body mass is indicative of natal condition. Heavier juveniles had greater body mass and had higher rates of annual survival as adults, independent of age. In contrast, there was no association between juvenile mass and adult telomere length attrition (a measure of somatic stress) nor annual reproduction. These results indicate that juvenile body mass, while not associated with senescence trajectories, can influence the likelihood of surviving to old age, potentially due to silver-spoon effects. This study shows that measures of intrinsic condition in juveniles can provide important insights into long-term fitness of individuals in wild populations.</span></p>
Active season body mass patterns of Little Brown Bats and Northern Myotis: Raw and fitted mass values, environmental conditions and inflection point estimates
<p><span>Animals are expected to adjust their behavioural patterns to improve fitness outcomes, such as fecundity or offspring survival. For long-lived hibernators, decisions made in each annual cycle may reflect considerations not just for concurrent survival and reproduction, but also the pressure to maximize overwinter survival and future reproductive success. We examined how these elements manifest themselves in the body mass variation patterns of North American northern latitude temperate bats, whose size and roosting habits present considerable monitoring challenges. We characterized and compared the summer and fall mass variation patterns of little brown myotis (<em>Myotis lucifugus</em>) and northern myotis (<em>M. septentrionalis</em></span><span>) from a historic dataset. In summer, the estimated date of parturition was strongly associated with spring foraging conditions (low wind, low precipitation, warm temperatures), and mass gain associated with female reproduction conferred considerable differentiation between the mass variation patterns of females and males. In fall, differences were most apparent among species, although adults exhibited a greater capacity for rapid mass gain than juveniles. These results demonstrate how reproductive constraints and interannual survival have important influences on the behaviour of temperate bats. Future work should seek to quantify the fitness benefits of patterns identified in this study, such as the rate of prehibernation mass gain.</span></p>
Data from: Widespread bird species show idiosyncratic responses in residual body mass to selective logging and edge effects in the Colombian Western Andes
<p>This dataset consists of banding data (N = 1589 captures, 129 bird species), including morphological and breeding biology measures, collected from understory birds in subtropical cloudforest at roughly 2000 m.a.s.l. in the municipality of El Cairo in Colombia's Western Andes (Serrania de los Paraguas range). Roughly 8,350 net hours were divided into two three-month field seasons (June-August 2017 and January-March 2018), both corresponding to local dry seasons. Birds were banded along 500-meter transects in forest interior across a gradient of forest fragment patch sizes (N = 8 fragments, area range = 10-173 ha) and a private ~750 ha reserve (Reserva Natural Cerro El Ingles) in the same landscape. Each non-hummingbird capture was fitted with an aluminum leg band with a unique combination, and we collected data on mass, tarsus length, wing chord, pectoral muscle score, cloacal protuberance and brood patch score, and age and sex (where possible due to plumage differences). We captured 101 species (including 6 boreal migrants) in 844 captures (53%) during the January-March sampling period and 102 species in 745 captures during the June-August sampling period; each site was sampled during both sampling periods. The most captured bird families were Trochilidae (24 spp., 36% of total captures), Thraupidae (17 spp.), Tyrannidae (16 spp.), Furnariidae (14 spp.), and Turdidae (6 spp.).</p> <p>A subset of these data (uploaded as a separate file) were used to calculate body condition indices for 20 species of commonly captured birds (N = 984 captures) that occured across much of the patch size gradient (at least 8 out of 14 transects), and were related to fragment area and measures of edge and selective logging effects (see Jones et al. 2022). In this file, we include all predictor variables necessary to run the generalized linear mixed models in Jones et al. (2022), including proportion forest cover within 1 km (a proxy for patch size), edge density, average distance to forest edge from the netting transect, average canopy cover and height along the transect, multivariate measures of understory plant density, large-diameter tree density, and vertical vegetation structure, elevation of each transect, and average yearly rainfall for each transect.</p>
Dataset for: On the estimation of body mass in temnospondyls: A case study using the large-bodied Eryops and Paracyclotosaurus
<p>Temnospondyli are a morphologically varied and ecologically diverse clade of tetrapods that survived for over 200 million years. The body mass of temnospondyls is a key variable in inferring their ecological, physiological, and biomechanical attributes. However, estimating the body mass of these extinct creatures has proven difficult because the group has no extant descendants. Here we apply a wide range of body mass estimation techniques developed for tetrapods to the iconic temnospondyls <em>Paracyclotosaurus davidi</em> and <em>Eryops megacephalus</em>. These same methods are also applied to a collection of extant organisms that serve as ecological and morphological analogues. These include the giant salamanders <em>Andrias japonicus</em> and <em>Andrias davidianus</em>, the tiger salamander <em>Ambystoma tigrinum</em>, the California newt <em>Taricha torosa,</em> and the saltwater crocodile, <em>Crocodylus porosus</em>. We find that several methods can provide accurate mass estimations across this range of living taxa, suggesting their suitability for estimating the body masses of temnospondyls. Based on this, we estimate the mass of <em>Paracyclotosaurus</em> was between 159 and 365 kg, and <em>Eryops</em> was between 102 and 222 kg. These findings provide a basis for examining body size evolution in this clade across their entire temporal span.</p>
Depleted lean body mass after crossing an ecological barrier differentially affects stopover duration and refueling rate among species of long-distance migratory birds
<p>During the long-distance migratory flights of birds, lean mass breakdown occurs in concert with fat catabolism and is expected to have repercussions on total stopover duration because birds require time to rebuild lean tissue before accumulating fat reserves. Despite this, little is known about the role of in-flight lean mass breakdown on stopover duration because direct measurements are restricted by the destructive nature of traditional body composition analysis and the technological limitations of tracking small birds over large expanses. We used non-lethal, non-invasive Quantitative Magnetic Resonance technology and plasma metabolite profiling to measure the body composition and physiological state of free-living birds captured at a migratory stopover site after flight across the Gulf of Mexico, and an automated radiotelemetry array covering ~5000 km<sup>2</sup> to track stopover duration and regional movements. We tested whether stopover duration is prolonged in individuals arriving with lower lean mass and investigated how lean mass affects regional movements. Stopover duration decreased by 22% for each additional gram of lean mass in Northern Waterthrush (Parkesia noveboracensis), but this relationship was not apparent in Swainson's Thrush (Catharus ustulatus), Gray-cheeked Thrush (Catharus minimus), or Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus), even though these species also arrived with depleted lean mass. Stopover duration increased for Swainson's Thrush with higher plasma uric acid, a marker of protein catabolism. Northern Waterthrush with higher plasma triglycerides had longer stopovers. Our findings suggest that migratory birds may compensate for substantial lean mass losses by increasing refueling rate or relocating habitat, and highlights species-level differences in lean mass breakdown and the associated impacts on physiological function. Our results highlight the strategies used by different species to recover from a trans-Gulf of Mexico flight and resume migration, which improves our understanding of the annual cycle of migratory birds.</p>
Do changes in body mass alter white blood cell profiles and immune function in Australian cane toads (Rhinella marina)?
<p><span>Variation in food resources can result in dramatic fluctuations in the body condition of animals dependent on those resources. Decreases in body mass can disrupt patterns of energy allocation and impose stress, thereby altering immune function. In this study we investigated links between changes in body mass of captive cane toads (Rhinella marina), their circulating white blood cell populations, and their performance in immune assays. Captive toads that lost weight over a 3-month period had increased levels of monocytes and heterophils and reduced levels of eosinophils. Basophil and lymphocyte levels were unrelated to changes in mass. Because individuals that lost mass had higher heterophil levels but stable lymphocyte levels, the ratio of these cell types was also higher, partially consistent with a stress response. Phagocytic ability of whole blood was higher in toads that lost mass, due to increased circulating levels of phagocytic cells. Other measures of immune performance were unrelated to mass change. These results highlight the challenges faced by invasive species as they expand their range into novel environments which may impose substantial seasonal changes in food availability that were not present in the native range. Individuals facing energy restrictions may shift their immune function towards more economical and general avenues of combating pathogens. </span></p>
ASreml code and Data from the study "Between-population differences in the genetic and maternal components of body mass in roe deer"
<p>This repository contains the source code (ASremL input files) and the data used to perform the QG analyses (univariate, bivariate, random regression animal models) in the study "Between-population differences in the genetic and maternal components of body mass in roe deer". Quéméré E et al.</p> <p> </p>
Fig. 1 in Wing-Length, Body Mass And Fat Reserves Of Robins (Erithacus Rubecula) During Autumn Migration In Hungary
Fig. 1. Location of ringing sites
FIGURE 5 in Body mass divergence in sympatric deer species of Pleistocene Crete (Greece)
FIGURE 5. Diversity of body size in Cervidae.
Data from: Climate drives body mass changes in a mountain ungulate: Shorter winters lead to heavier Alpine ibex
<p>Climate affects seasonality and plant phenology, which can influence seasonal body mass dynamics of herbivores in temperate environments. We investigated long-term trends of seasonal body mass changes in male Alpine ibex (<em>Capra ibex</em>). We used SEM to test direct and indirect relationships between body mass, mass changes and environmental and climatic variables. Individually recognizable Alpine ibex were weighed repeatedly between 2000 and 2022 in Gran Paradiso National Park (Italy). Autumn mass increased substantially over these two decades, up to 15% in some age classes. Over the same time frame, both summer mass gain and winter mass loss decreased, suggesting that heavier autumn body mass was due to the cumulative effects of reduced mass loss over several winters. The environmental factor with the strongest effects on winter mass changes was the starting date of vegetation green-up at low altitude, where ibex gather after winter to feed on new growth vegetation. Early springs led to lower winter mass loss, likely because ibex relied on stored fat for a shorter period and had greater access to forage. High population density also increased winter mass loss. Environmental conditions and resource availability, possibly also influenced by density in winter and early spring seem therefore to directly affect the body mass dynamics of male Alpine ibex, while the effect of summer conditions appears less relevant. By affecting seasonal body mass dynamics, climate change may have consequences for life history and population dynamics of mountain herbivores, for example via earlier access of young males to reproduction.</p>
How does the proximity to restaurants and sports facilities influence the Body Mass Index in Geneva?
<p>Sport facilities and restaurants of the canton of Geneva, located by means of adresses, are published. They were obtained from the Geographic Information System of Geneva (Système d'Information du Territoire à Genève, SITG). The BMI dataset is strictly confidential and could not be published.</p>
body mass: body mass
body mass for all available taxa
Reptilia - body mass
<p>vertebrate size data subset derived from several resources </p>
Shelled animal body mass
<p>estimates based on length measurements from specimens or specimen photos. Lengths from</p> <p>http://www.femorale.com. Conversion formulae from literature sources.</p>
Macroecological database of mammalian body mass: Body Size
NCEAS 2182: Smith: Body size in ecology and paleoecology: Linking pattern and process across spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, and Smith F. Macroecological database of mammalian body mass (doi:10.5063/AA/nceas.196.3)<p></p>NCEAS 2182: Smith: Body size in ecology and paleoecology: Linking pattern and process across spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, and Smith F. Macroecological database of mammalian body mass (doi:10.5063/AA/nceas.196.3)
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Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
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