Abstract
Abstract. Changing temperature regime has an important effect on the respiratory metabolism of Glomeris balcanica. A left skewing response of animals to increasing temperature is revealed and modeled. Acclimation from fluctuating to constant temperatures depresses metabolism through a three-step process. Short-term acclimation results in strongly depressed metabolism, mid-term acclimation induces metabolic recovery, whereas long-term acclimation results in an irreversible decline of metabolic activity. Heavy metal burdens of food do not affect the left skewing thermal response of animals, although they depress metabolic levels at the high temperature range, shorten tolerance ranges by shifting down the upper tolerance threshold, enlarge optimal temperature range (metabolic constancy) and stimulate the faster activation of the metabolic compensatory mechanism. Finally, no effect of short-term fasting on respiration was detected.
Highlights
Changing temperature regime has an important effect on the respiratory metabolism of Glomeris balcanica
This study concerns the respiratory response of the diplopod Glomeris balcanica to changing temperature regimes, heavy metal pollution of food and fasting, following and integrating previous papers on the metabolic activity of this animal (Stamou and Iatrou 1990, 1993)
The respiration-temperature relationship is generally discussed either upon Q10 coefficients of Van’t Hoff or upon parameters of empirical models fitted to data, such as the exponential, the logarithmic, the Krogh-Jorgensen or the Arrhenius equation
Summary
Changing temperature regime has an important effect on the respiratory metabolism of Glomeris balcanica. Heavy metal burdens of food do not affect the left skewing thermal response of animals, they depress metabolic levels at the high temperature range, shorten tolerance ranges by shifting down the upper tolerance threshold, enlarge optimal temperature range (metabolic constancy) and stimulate the faster activation of the metabolic compensatory mechanism. This study concerns the respiratory response of the diplopod Glomeris balcanica to changing temperature regimes, heavy metal pollution of food and fasting, following and integrating previous papers on the metabolic activity of this animal (Stamou and Iatrou 1990, 1993). Fasting was taken into account in our study, because it is considered important for the synchronization of the life cycle development of arthropods inhabiting Mediterranean areas (Stamou 1998). Every 3 days food was renewed and culture vessels were cleaned from animal excrements for preventing mycelia development
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