Maintenance Energy Respiratory Quotient

• Gross energy Æ Dig Energy Æ Met Energy Æ

Net Energy Æ Maintenance & Production • Need to assign an amount of energy to each
• Maintenance Energy is the sum of: liter of amount of CO2 produced
– BMR
• Use ratio of CO2/O2 = Respiratory Quotient
– Thermoregulation
– Fats little oxygen, RQ = 0.7, 6.694 kcals/l CO2
– Activity
– CHOs more oxygen, RQ = 1.0, 5.047 kcals/l CO2
• To measure maintenance energy, want to
quantify heat production
• Do this indirectly by measuring CO2 or O2.
How is this done?

Doubly Labeled Water Basal Metabolic Rate

• Energy to support basic body functions
• Another way of
estimating CO2 • Measure BMR in standard conditions:
production – Muscular and psychic repose, not sleeping
• Oxygen lost from – Thermoneutral environment
the body as water – Post-absorptive state
and CO2 • First and last may be difficult to attain
• Hydrogen lost from – How could you determine when animal is post-
the body only as absorptive?
water • What about pregnant, lactating, egg laying?

Basal Metabolic Rate Basal Metabolic Rate

• BMR scales to body mass, but not linearly: • BMR scales to body mass, log-log plot:
14,000 140
12,000 120
Y = 70 X0.75
10,000 100
kcals/kg/day

Where:
kcals/day

8,000 80 Y = kcals/day
6,000 60 X = body mass Figure 8.5 Robbins 1993
in kg
4,000 40
2,000 20
0 0
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Body Mass (kg)

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 Basal Metabolic Rate Basal Metabolic Rate
• BMR greater for birds than mammals
• Y = 70 X0.75 determined with domestic • Varies with time of day
animals by Kleiber in the 1940s
• Relationships different for wild animals
– Eutherian Y = 57.2 X0.716
– Marsupial Y = 46.6 X0.737
Figure 8.6 Robbins 1993
• Varies by taxa
– Higher in carnivores, some granivores, grazers
– Lower in folivores and large insectivores

Basal Metabolic Rate Thermoregulation

• BMR varies seasonally
– Decreases in large mammals during winter
– Increases in many small mammals during winter
• MR drops when animal is sleeping
• Drops even more during hibernation
– Y = 3.2 X1.03 for small mammals
– Y = 15.2 X0.99 for bears
– 57.2 (100)0.716 = 1,547 15.2 (100)0.99 = 1,452
• Birds (40 – 44 C) and mammals (36 – 40 C)
must maintain a relatively constant body
temperature
• Behavior can be altered to maintain temp
– Examples?
• Outside certain limits, animal must expend
energy to maintain body temp
• Measure metabolic rate at a variety of temps

Thermoregulation Thermoregulation

Metabolic rate of
black ducks with
5, 10, or 20 g of oil
on their feathers

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 Thermoregulation Activity
• Animals must integrate a variety of heat • Standing increases MR by 20% above BMR
sources and sinks to maintain body temp – Horses are less, why?
• Hm ± Qr ± Qc ± Qk ± Qe = Hs • Cost of movement influenced by body mass
– Hm = metabolic heat production and rate of travel
– Qr = radiation – Leg length
– Qc = convection – Body length
– Qk = conduction Figure 8.8 Robbins 1993

– Qe = evaporation
• Over the long term, Hs (heat stored) = 0
– Hm is always +, so others must be negtive

Activity
• Cost/unit distance decreases with velocity
– Cost = Overhead + movement cost • Figure 8.11 Robbins 1993
– Movement cost same whether walking or running
– When going fast, less time, therefore less overhead
• Hills – Add 6 kcals/kg/vertical km to
horizontal cost
• Snow – Cost of travel influenced by
– snow conditions
– foot loading
– leg length

Activity Energy Budget

• Eating – 10-35% above standing
• Can sum all the various energy expenditures
• Flying and estimate amount of energy required by an
• Expensive on a time basis animal (Table 7.7 from Robbins 1983)
– 3.5 to 6.5 X BMR for aerial species
– Other species up to 14 X BMR
– Some flight up to 23 X BMR for short periods
• Flight low on a unit distance basis
– 10g bird spends 1% of energy to travel 1 km as a
10g mouse

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 Maintenance Protein
• Quantify metabolic fecal nitrogen and
endogenous urinary nitrogen
• MFN is a function of dry matter intake
• Varies by species
– In ruminants, least in grazers, highest in browsers
• Also related to fiber content of food
• Quantified by extrapolating N intake vs. N
excretion back to 0 intake
• See Figs 2 & 4 from Asleson et al. 1996
(JWM)
Maintenance Protein
• EUN is a function of metabolic body mass
(kg0.75)
• Nitrogen requirements are a function of
intake and body size
• This means animal cannot balance its
requirements simply by eating more.
• See Fig. 9.2 from Robbins 1993