Ecophysiology of mammals

Abstract

Ecophysiology is a relatively recent interdisciplinary field, and although active prior to the 75th anniversary of the American Society of Mammalogists (ASM), it has grown in breadth since then. This growth is in part a result of advances in technology that have reduced the size and improved the portability of key instrumentation, and also made sequencing of proteins and nucleic acids faster and less expensive. Here, we demonstrate the breadth of recent research on the ecophysiology of mammals, quantify the research activity of the past 25 years, and consider future research needs. Some of the most active areas of research have related to maintenance of homeostasis, associations of physiological traits with the evolution of varied life styles and life histories, and reproductive physiology. Key findings involve allometry and scaling, energetics and thermoregulation, phenotypic plasticity and epigenetics, and the importance of microbial symbionts. With respect to predictions of trends in mammalian ecophysiology, the strongest themes relate to conservation biology, in large part related to rapid climate change, habitat destruction, and other anthropogenic factors. How our mammalian fauna adapts (or not) to these changes will be of great interest, and has the potential to affect the science of mammalogy in the future. La ecofisiología es un campo interdisciplinario relativamente reciente, y a pesar de que era un área vigorosa antes del septuagésimo quinto aniversario de la Sociedad Americana de Mastozoología (ASM), desde entonces ha crecido en envergadura. Este crecimiento es en parte el resultado de los avances tecnológicos en donde el tamaño de los instrumentos se ha reducido facilitando de ese modo la portabilidad de instrumentos claves, y al mismo tiempo, permitiendo que la secuenciación de proteínas y ácidos nucleicos sea más rápida y menos costosa. En este trabajo, se demuestra el alcance de la investigación reciente sobre la ecofisiología de los mamíferos, se cuantifica la actividad científica de las investigaciones de las últimas dos décadas y se hacen predicciones para los próximos 25 años. Algunas de las áreas más activas de investigación se han asociado con el mantenimiento de la homeostasis, la relación entre los rasgos fisiológicos con la evolución de diferentes estilos e historias de vida, y la fisiología reproductiva. Los hallazgos clave incluyen la alometría y la escala, la energética y la termorregulación, la plasticidad fenotípica y la epigenética, y la importancia de los simbiontes microbianos. Con respecto a las predicciones sobre las tendencias de la ecofisiología de mamíferos, los temas más comunes están relacionados con la biología de la conservación, en su mayor parte a consecuencia del rápido cambio climático, la destrucción del hábitat y otros factores antropogénicos. La forma en que nuestra fauna de mamíferos se adapta (o no) a estos cambios, a nivel fisiológico y de otro tipo, será de gran interés en el futuro, teniendo el potencial de influir a la ciencia de la mastozoología.

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