Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, Graham Kerr Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
PSL Université Paris: EPHE-UPVD-CNRS, USR 3278 CRIOBE, BP 1013, 98729 Papetoai, Moorea, French Polynesia.
J Exp Biol. 2021 Sep 15;224(18). doi: 10.1242/jeb.242522. Epub 2021 Sep 14.
Interest in the measurement of metabolic rates is growing rapidly, because of the importance of metabolism in advancing our understanding of organismal physiology, behaviour, evolution and responses to environmental change. The study of metabolism in aquatic animals is undergoing an especially pronounced expansion, with more researchers utilising intermittent-flow respirometry as a research tool than ever before. Aquatic respirometry measures the rate of oxygen uptake as a proxy for metabolic rate, and the intermittent-flow technique has numerous strengths for use with aquatic animals, allowing metabolic rate to be repeatedly estimated on individual animals over several hours or days and during exposure to various conditions or stimuli. There are, however, no published guidelines for the reporting of methodological details when using this method. Here, we provide the first guidelines for reporting intermittent-flow respirometry methods, in the form of a checklist of criteria that we consider to be the minimum required for the interpretation, evaluation and replication of experiments using intermittent-flow respirometry. Furthermore, using a survey of the existing literature, we show that there has been incomplete and inconsistent reporting of methods for intermittent-flow respirometry over the past few decades. Use of the provided checklist of required criteria by researchers when publishing their work should increase consistency of the reporting of methods for studies that use intermittent-flow respirometry. With the steep increase in studies using intermittent-flow respirometry, now is the ideal time to standardise reporting of methods, so that - in the future - data can be properly assessed by other scientists and conservationists.
人们对代谢率测量的兴趣正在迅速增长，因为代谢在增进我们对生物生理学、行为、进化以及对环境变化的反应的理解方面具有重要意义。水生动物代谢的研究正在经历特别显著的扩展，利用间歇流动呼吸计作为研究工具的研究人员比以往任何时候都多。水生呼吸计通过测量氧气摄取率来间接测量代谢率，间歇流动技术对于水生动物有许多优势，它可以在数小时或数天内反复估计个体动物的代谢率，并在暴露于各种条件或刺激物时进行测量。然而，目前没有关于使用这种方法报告方法细节的指南。在这里，我们提供了报告间歇流动呼吸计方法的第一个指南，以检查表的形式列出了我们认为对于解释、评估和复制使用间歇流动呼吸计的实验是最低要求的标准。此外，通过对现有文献的调查，我们表明在过去几十年中，间歇流动呼吸计的方法报告一直不完整且不一致。研究人员在发表研究工作时使用提供的所需标准检查表，应该会增加使用间歇流动呼吸计的研究报告方法的一致性。随着使用间歇流动呼吸计的研究急剧增加，现在是标准化报告方法的理想时机，以便将来其他科学家和自然资源保护主义者可以正确评估数据。
