Basal metabolic rate, maximum thermogenic capacity and aerobic scope in rodents: interaction between environmental temperature and torpor use

When torpid animals arouse and warm up to restore normal body temperature (T(b)), they produce heat at levels that can reach up to 10 times basal metabolic rate (BMR), close to the cold-induced summit metabolism (VO(2)-sum). Because torpor is an adaptation aimed at conserving energy over periods of low ambient temperature (T(a)) and food availability, selective forces that have led to the evolution of torpor may have simultaneously favoured high thermogenic capacity (i.e. VO(2)-sum) relative to the maintenance costs (i.e. BMR), hence a higher factorial aerobic scope (FAS; the ratio of VO(2)-sum to BMR). My objective was to test this adaptive hypothesis using a phylogenetically informed comparative approach with data on BMR and VO(2)-sum in rodents. I found a strong negative correlation between FAS and the average of the daily minimum T(a) (T(min)) in species using torpor, which was due to differential effects of T(a) on BMR (but not VO(2)-sum) in species that use torpor compared with species that do not. In addition, FAS was negatively correlated with the lowest torpid T(b) in a subset of nine species. These results suggest that in species using torpor, selective forces may have acted to maximize the efficiency of thermogenic capacity (VO(2)-sum) relative to maintenance costs (BMR), resulting in an increasing FAS with decreasing T(a).