ArticleBiology letters2013
Warmer ambient temperatures depress liver function in a mammalian herbivore.
Article in Biology letters, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ambient temperature and toxic diets constrain snake venom resistance in a desert rodent.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Warmer ambient temperatures reduce protein intake by a mammalian folivore.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Sportive lemurs elevate their metabolic rate during challenging seasons and do not enter regular heterothermy.Conservation physiology · 2021Article
- Gut microbiota in liver disease: too much is harmful, nothing at all is not helpful either.American journal of physiology. Gastrointestinal and liver physiology · 2019Review
- Why fly the extra mile? Latitudinal trend in migratory fuel deposition rate as driver of trans-equatorial long-distance migration.Ecology and evolution · 2016Article
- Ambient temperature influences tolerance to plant secondary compounds in a mammalian herbivore.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2016Article
- Using the Specialization Framework to Determine Degree of Dietary Specialization in a Herbivorous Woodrat.Journal of chemical ecology · 2015Article
- Thermoregulation in endotherms: physiological principles and ecological consequences.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2015Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Diet selection in mammalian herbivores is thought to be mainly influenced by intrinsic factors such as nutrients and plant secondary compounds, yet extrinsic factors like ambient temperature may also play a role. In particular, warmer ambient temperatures could enhance the toxicity of plant defence compounds through decreased liver metabolism of herbivores. Temperature-dependent toxicity has been documented in pharmacology and agriculture science but not in wild mammalian herbivores. Here, we investigated how ambient temperature affects liver metabolism in the desert woodrat, Neotoma lepida. Woodrats (n = 21) were acclimated for 30 days to two ambient temperatures (cool = 21°C, warm = 29°C). In a second experiment, the temperature exposure was reduced to 3.5 h. After temperature treatments, animals were given a hypnotic agent and clearance time of the agent was estimated from the duration of the hypnotic state. The average clearance time of the agent in the long acclimation experiment was 45% longer for animals acclimated to 29°C compared with 21°C. Similarly, after the short exposure experiment, woodrats at 29°C had clearance times 26% longer compared with 21°C. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that liver function is reduced at warmer environmental temperatures and may provide a physiological mechanism through which climate change affects herbivorous mammals.
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Registered trials
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