Neu David L, Fletcher Laura S, Bolander Mikayla, Raj Vibalia, Marlow Bailey N, Griffen Blaine D
Biology Department Brigham Young University Provo Utah USA.
Ecol Evol. 2025 Jun 24;15(6):e71614. doi: 10.1002/ece3.71614. eCollection 2025 Jun.
Numerous laboratory studies have shown that meal size can influence the metabolism of individual organisms. However, in nature, meal size can vary simultaneously with a host of other factors that are often controlled under experimental conditions (e.g., reproductive state, health or physiological condition, temperature, meal composition, etc.). This study examines the influence of the mass of food in the gut (i.e., a proxy for meal size) on the metabolic rate of the European green crab () in the field when other factors are not controlled in order to examine the relative influence of meal size on postprandial metabolism (i.e., specific dynamic action or SDA) compared to other factors known to influence metabolism. We collected 383 crabs intertidally during low-tide periods and measured their metabolic rates in situ, followed by dissection to assess the mass of food in the gut, as well as reproductive and body condition metrics. We found that metabolic rate increased with body mass and with the mass of food in the gut, and decreased with gravid individuals. Our results show that SDA has an effect that can be observed despite leaving other influential factors uncontrolled, demonstrating the importance of the costs of digestion to the everyday energy balance of these organisms.
大量实验室研究表明，进食量会影响个体生物的新陈代谢。然而，在自然环境中，进食量可能会与许多其他因素同时变化，而这些因素在实验条件下通常是受到控制的（例如，生殖状态、健康或生理状况、温度、食物组成等）。本研究在不控制其他因素的情况下，考察了肠道内食物量（即进食量的一个指标）对野外欧洲绿蟹（）代谢率的影响，以便与已知影响代谢的其他因素相比，研究进食量对餐后代谢（即特定动力作用或SDA）的相对影响。我们在退潮期间在潮间带收集了383只螃蟹，并现场测量它们的代谢率，随后进行解剖以评估肠道内食物的量，以及生殖和身体状况指标。我们发现，代谢率随体重和肠道内食物量的增加而增加，随怀卵个体而降低。我们的结果表明，尽管其他影响因素未得到控制，但SDA的影响仍然可以观察到，这证明了消化成本对这些生物日常能量平衡的重要性。
