Dalton and Jacob teamed up with collaborator, John VandenBrooks, and PI Rory Telemeco to put the Hierarchical Mechanisms of Thermal Limitation (HMTL) hypothesis to the test. They designed an experiment to test one of the key predictions of HMTL, that animals with elevated metabolic rates will become thermally limited by low oxygen more rapidly than animals at rest. They tested the hypothesis by designing and constructing custom thermal gradient “boxes” that allowed us to manipulate both the oxygen and temperature environment within the boxes. The group then investigated how experimentally elevating the metabolic rate affected selected body temperatures. As predicted, animals with elevated metabolic rates were forced to lower their body temperatures in hypoxia while those that did not have elevated metabolic rates did not. This is the first experimental evidence supporting HMTL and a launch pad for future work! Go team!!!
You can check out the full paper at the Journal of Experimental Zoology A. If you are unable to access the MS, feel free to write telemeco@csufresno.edu to request a re-print.