Energy allocation is revealed while behavioural performance persists after fire disturbance.

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Animal Physiology
• Behavioral Ecology

Background:

• Metabolic physiology and animal behavior are often linked via performance or allocation models.
• Habitat disturbance, like fire, degrades ecosystems, affecting resources and survival, particularly for specialists like the root vole (Microtus oeconomus).
• Environmental context can reveal allocation limitations in energetically costly behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if fire disturbance induces co-expression of physiology and behavior in root voles.
• To test the hypothesis that altered environmental context following fire impacts the physiology-behavior relationship.
• To differentiate between performance and allocation mechanisms in response to habitat disturbance.

Main Methods:

• Repeatedly measured maintenance and exercise metabolism in root voles from post-fire and unburnt habitats.
• Assessed behavioral responses using open field tests.
• Correlated metabolic traits with behavioral measures within individuals.

Main Results:

• Highly repeatable maintenance metabolism positively correlated with distance moved in behavioral tests.
• Labile exercise metabolism did not covary with behavior.
• Root voles from post-fire habitats exhibited higher maintenance metabolism and shorter movement distances compared to those from unburnt areas.

Conclusions:

• Fire disturbance demonstrates a prevalence of the performance mechanism in physiology-behavior covariation.
• Context-dependent allocation constraints also manifest at the within-individual level after disturbance.
• Behavioral plasticity is significant for root voles facing environmental disturbance.