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10-Minute Presentation

Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology

10-min: PBT, Thermal Physiology

Metabolic rates, natural history, and collective behavior of ants, from Rhode Island to Palestine

Wednesday, November 13, 2024
10:18 AM – 10:30 AM MST
Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 224 B, PCC
Oral Presentation
Metabolic rates are an integrative snapshot of an organism’s biochemical and physiological activity and play a central role in their life histories, behavioral ecology, and evolution. In social insects such as ants, metabolic rates are strongly influenced not only by their size, temperature, and activity but also the nature of their social environments. Recent experimental results with a diverse range of species and group sizes suggest that colonies exhibit scaling patterns that are consistent with individual metabolic allometry. In the process of doing these experimental studies though, organisms are fully extracted from their natural settings and the behavioral contexts are often poorly defined. Additionally, scientists doing this work can also become increasingly removed from both natural and social contexts. Our most recent work focusing on increasingly contextualized model and non-model systems and reconnecting with the land is helping to resolve outstanding questions in metabolic ecology, highlight ways to decolonize myrmecology, and has broader implications for how we learn and teach about biology and engage with our purpose as scientists.