Sakai Kino, Narazaki Tomoko, Mori Masanori, Matsumoto Tomomi, Aoki Kagari, Fahlman Andreas, Sakamoto Kentaro Q
Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Chiba 277-8564, Japan.
Faculty of Agriculture, Meijo University, Aichi 468-8502, Japan.
Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol. 2025 Jul;305:111855. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2025.111855. Epub 2025 Apr 4.
The ventilatory capacity of sea turtles is an important factor in their diving ability because they spend most of their time submerged. However, there is limited information on the relationship between the ventilatory capacity and body mass of sea turtles. To investigate the allometric scaling of the functional ventilatory capacity, we measured respiratory flow, tidal volume, and breath duration of spontaneous breaths in 40 sea turtles from 3 species (loggerhead, Caretta caretta; green, Chelonia mydas; hawksbill, Eretmochelys imbricata) of various body sizes (range: 0.7-120.6 kg) on land and in water. The results showed that the ventilatory capacity did not differ on land or in water. The respiratory flow and tidal volume increased with body mass with an allometric exponent of 0.76-0.80 and 0.87-0.89, respectively. In contrast, the breath duration and the ratio of tidal volume to the maximum lung volume were constant. These results suggest that sea turtles increase respiratory flow by increasing tidal volume with increasing body mass rather than prolonging breath duration, which may allow them to reduce the surface interval to breathe. This study improves the understanding of the ventilatory capacity of sea turtles.
海龟的通气能力是其潜水能力的一个重要因素，因为它们大部分时间都处于水下。然而，关于海龟通气能力与体重之间关系的信息有限。为了研究功能性通气能力的异速生长缩放，我们测量了来自3个物种（蠵龟，Caretta caretta；绿海龟，Chelonia mydas；玳瑁，Eretmochelys imbricata）、各种体型（范围：0.7 - 120.6千克）的40只海龟在陆地和水中自主呼吸时的呼吸流量、潮气量和呼吸持续时间。结果表明，通气能力在陆地和水中没有差异。呼吸流量和潮气量随体重增加，异速生长指数分别为0.76 - 0.80和0.87 - 0.89。相比之下，呼吸持续时间以及潮气量与最大肺容量的比值是恒定的。这些结果表明，随着体重增加，海龟通过增加潮气量而不是延长呼吸持续时间来增加呼吸流量，这可能使它们能够减少呼吸的水面间隔时间。这项研究增进了对海龟通气能力的理解。
