Effect of Temperature on the Metabolic Rate of Crickets
Mike Steminsky
BIO 104 Lab
Professor Harris
22 October 2017
Introduction:
It is shown that temperature has many profound effects on ectothermic animals (Cossins and Bowler, 1987). Crickets are ectotherms. This means that they use their environment in order to keep or maintain heat. Ectotherms use their surrounding environment to regulate their body temperatures. Endotherms regulate their body temperatures internally and do not need to worry about their environment. Crickets therefore need to raise their metabolic rates in order to combat the cold weather. Metabolic rate is an organism’s pattern of energy usage reflected in measurements of energy expenditure (Nespolo, et. al 4319). In other words, the metabolic rate of an animal or insect is simply the measurement of an animal’s energy expense. A cricket is an insect and its metabolic rate is determined by mass and temperature. Cricket’s are also small insects, so their metabolic rate will have to increase since they have a small mass to keep up with a change in temperature as previously mentioned. My hypothesis therefore for this experiment, knowing a cricket is an ectotherm, states: crickets metabolic rate will decrease when being placed in a cold habitat because they will need to adapt quickly to their changing cooling environment internally to stay warm.
Methods:
Before conducting the experiment, you will have to gather materials. In the experiment I used a computer, Vernier computer interface LoggerPro (Computer program to read instrument), Vernier CO2 Gas Sensor (instrument used to read crickets), 125mL respiration chamber, 600mL beaker, 1L beaker, thermometer and ice. For my experiment, 18 crickets were randomly selected and placed in a holding chamber at room temperature. The first step to the experiment is making sure the Vernier products are up and running. Connect Vernier gas sensor to the computer and open LoggerPro. Once Vernier gas sensor is calibrated, take temperature of the room (should be 20-25 degrees celsius) and collect data, then collect three crickets and weigh each one to find its mass. Gather the data and record it onto the mass table. Place a cricket in a respiration chamber and place the shaft of the gas sensor into the respiration chamber. Record the data for the cricket. Set up an ice bath for the cricket. Fill a container with ice and water, get the temperature to 5-10 degrees celsius. Then place the respiration chamber in the ice bath and place the gas sensor into the respiration chamber. Wait 10 minutes to let the crickets acclimate to the temperature and then record your results from the gas sensor. Repeat these steps until all crickets have been calculated.
Results:
Figure 1: This graph shows the relationship of temperature to metabolic rate in 18 crickets. It shows that in warmer temperatures the metabolic rate is much higher than in colder temperatures. This occurs because crickets are ectotherms and use their environment to regulate body temperature.
| Average Temperature
(Celsius) |
Average Metabolic Rate
(ppm/sec/g) |
| 22.83 Dec C | 0.86 ppm/sec/g |
| 4.83 Deg C | 0.027 ppm/sec/g |
Figure 2: Table of the average temperature in celsius and average metabolic rate in ppm/sec/g. Table shows averages over 18 crickets. Data gathered during experiment
The average temperature of my trials for room temperature is 22.83 Deg C. The average temperature for my trials in the ice water is 4.83 Deg C. The average metabolic rate for a cricket in a room temperature setting is 0.86 ppm/sec/g. The average metabolic rate for a cricket in the ice bath environment is 0.027ppm/sec/g.
Discussion:
The data I discovered during my experiment supported all the information found while researching. My hypothesis saying that the crickets in the warmer temperature will have a higher average metabolic rate compared to the much lower rate of a cricket in a cold temperature is also supported. The crickets exposed to warm temperatures responded with a normal average metabolic rate. They are used to this temperature and therefore had natural numbers. The crickets then being exposed to cold temperatures forced them to have a lower metabolic rate because they were going into hibernation. The crickets adapted to the cold temperature as they do in real life and went into an energy saving mode. The crickets therefore would have a lower metabolic rate because the don’t have to use as much energy as they normally would have to. In figure 5 of “METABOLIC RATE AND BODY TEMPERATURE REDUCTION DURING HIBERNATION AND DAILY TORPOR” it is shown that hibernators have a lower metabolic rate and this coincides with my results. Fritz Geiser discusses that hibernators have a metabolic inhibition that occurs when a temperature is lower. (Geiser 254) The information found in other studies regarding the cricket and its metabolic rates all are very similar to the results that I was presented with in my experiment.
Work Cited
Nespolo R.F., Lardies M.A., Bozinovic F. (2003). Intrapopulational variation in the standard metabolic rate of insects: repeatability, thermal dependence and sensitivity (Q10) of oxygen consumption in a cricket. The Journal of Experimental Biology 206, 4309-4315
Geiser F. (2004) METABOLIC RATE AND BODY TEMPERATURE REDUCTION DURING HIBERNATION AND DAILY TORPOR. Annu. Rev. Physiol. 66:239–74
The showcased writing I used is a biology cricket paper. For the paper I used the same approach that I would for an english 110 paper and it allowed me to get a solid paper written. I started off thinking about my topic. It was fairly simple considering that my topic of writing about crickets was given to me but I was thinking of ways to shape it into what I wanted. I created an outline for my cricket paper as I would for my English paper. It included the intro, methods, data, and discussion sections, each section being a paragraph. I then looked at the two prompts provided to us for writing the paper. I read and annotated the pieces to make sure I could find the information fast and easily. This is something I would not have done if I didn’t learn it in English 110. I would have simply browsed through the articles, but this class has taught me to annotate in order to understand the evidence as well as being able to locate it using descriptive analyzers. After selecting my evidence, I began working on my introduction. My introduction needed to be broad and then narrow down into my specific topic. I learned this skill in english and it allowed me to write a very good introduction where I began with broad cricket knowledge and then narrowed it into the metabolic rate of crickets, the topic I was writing about. As the paper went on I wrote the methods, data, and discussion pieces. During which, I made sure to remember simple grammar and sentence structure rules. When citing, I remembered to cite correctly using the author’s name. I also remembered how to weave quotes into a text. This skill substantially improved the quality of my paper and allowed for smooth integration of evidence. After writing my first draft, I showed it to a couple of my biology lab classmates. I told them not to worry about local edits and to just look at big ideas. One of my classmates said that my metabolic rate explanation in my rough draft was wrong. She showed me how to tweak it for the second draft. Without peer review, my paper would have had a major error I wouldn’t have realized. When it came to writing my final draft, I made all my major edits that my classmates suggested and tried to cover all local edits considering this would be the time to fix them. I then had my classmates look over my paper again. I told them to be specifically looking out for grammar and sentence structure errors. This would be the fine-tuning peer review before I submitted my assignment. After looking over those corrections, I was able to submit my paper using the same procedure that I would use when writing an english paper. I also used my MLA format knowledge from class to format the paper correctly.
