X-ray Binaries and Globular Clusters in Elliptical Galaxies

The X-ray emission from normal elliptical galaxies has two major components: soft emission from diffuse gas and harder emission from populations of accreting (low-mass) stellar X-ray binaries (LMXB). If LMXB populations are tied to the field stellar populations in galaxies, their total X-ray luminosities should be proportional to the optical luminosities of galaxies. However, recent ASCA and Chandra X-ray observations show that the global luminosities of LMXB components in ellipticals exhibit significant scatter at a given optical luminosity. This scatter may reflect a range of evolutionary stages among LMXB populations in ellipticals of different ages. If so, the ratio of the global LMXB X-ray luminosity to the galactic optical luminosity, L_LMXB/L_opt, may be used to determine when the bulk of stars were formed in individual ellipticals. To test this, we compare variations in L_LMXB/L_opt for LMXB populations in ellipticals to optically-derived estimates of stellar ages in the same galaxies. We find no correlation, implying that L_LMXB/L_opt variations are not good age indicators for ellipticals. Alternatively, LMXBs may be formed primarily in globular clusters (through stellar tidal interactions), rather than in the stellar fields of galaxies. Since elliptical galaxies exhibit a wide range of globular cluster populations for a given galaxian luminosity, this may induce a dispersion in the LMXB populations of ellipticals with similar optical luminosities. Indeed, we find that L_LMXB/L_opt ratios for LMXB populations are strongly correlated with the specific globular cluster frequencies in elliptical galaxies. This suggests that most LMXBs were formed in globular clusters.Comment: 5 pages, emulateapj5 style, 2 embedded EPS figures, to appear in ApJ Letter

Testing metabolic theories

Metabolism is the process by which individual organisms acquire energy and materials from their environment and use them for maintenance, differentiation, growth, and reproduction. There has been a recent push to build an individual-based metabolic underpinning into ecological theory—that is, a metabolic theory of ecology. However, the two main theories of individual metabolism that have been applied in ecology—Kooijman’s dynamic energy budget (DEB) theory and theWest, Brown, and Enquist (WBE) theory— have fundamentally different assumptions. Surprisingly, the core assumptions of these two theories have not been rigorously compared from an empirical perspective. Before we can build an understanding of ecology on the basis of individual metabolism, we must resolve the differences between these theories and thus set the appropriate foundation. Here we compare the DEB and WBE theories in detail as applied to ontogenetic growth and metabolic scaling, from which we identify circumstances where their predictions diverge most strongly. Promising experimental areas include manipulative studies of tissue regeneration, body shape, body condition, temperature, and oxygen. Much empirical work designed specifically with DEB and WBE theory in mind is required before any consensus can be reached on the appropriate theoretical basis for a metabolic theory of ecology

Effect of thermal acclimation on organ mass, tissue respiration, and allometry in Leichhardtian river prawns Macrobrachium tolmerum (Riek, 1951)

Changes to an animal's abiotic environment-and consequent changes in the allometry of metabolic rate in the whole animal and its constituent parts-has considerable potential to reveal important patterns in both intraspecific and interindividual variation of metabolic rates. This study demonstrates that, after6 wk of thermal acclimation at replicate treatments of 16°, 21°, and 25°C, standard metabolic rate (SMR) scales allometrically in Leichhardtian river prawns Macrobrachium tolmerum (mean scaling exponent p=0.61) and that the scaling exponent and normalization constant of the relationship between SMR and body mass is not significantly different among acclimation treatments when measured at 21°C. There is, however, significant variation among individuals in whole-animal metabolic rate. We hypothesized that these observations may arise because of changes in the metabolic rate and allometry of metabolic rate or mass of organ tissues within the animal. To investigate this hypothesis, rates of oxygen consumption in a range of tissues (gills, gonads, hepatopancreas, chelae muscle, tail muscle) were measured at 21°C and related to the body mass (M) and whole-animal SMR of individual prawns. We demonstrate that thermal acclimation had no effect on organ and tissue mass, that most organ and tissue (gills, gonads, hepatopancreas) respiration rates do not change with acclimation temperature, and that residual variation in the allometry of M. tolmerum SMR is not explained by differences in organ and tissue mass and respiration rates. These results suggest that body size and ambient temperature may independently affect metabolic rate in this species. Both chelae and tail muscle, however, exhibited a reduction in respiration rate in animals acclimated to 25° relative to those acclimated to 16° and 21°C. This reduction in respiration rates of muscle at higher temperatures is evidence of a tissue-specific acclimation response that was not detectable at the whole-animal level

Measuring Energetics and Behaviour Using Accelerometry in Cane Toads Bufo marinus

Cane toads Bufo marinus were introduced to Australia as a control agent but now have a rapidly progressing invasion front and damage new habitats they enter. Predictive models that can give expansion rates as functions of energy supply and feeding ground distribution could help to maximise control efficiency but to date no study has measured rates of field energy expenditure in an amphibian. In the present study we used the accelerometry technique to generate behavioural time budgets and, through the derivation of ODBA (overall dynamic body acceleration), to obtain estimates of energetics in free ranging cane toads. This represents the first time that accelerometers have been used to not only quantify the behaviour of animals but also assign to those behaviours rates of energy expenditure. Firstly, laboratory calibrations between ODBA and metabolic rate were obtained and used to generate a common prediction equation for the subject toads (R2 = 0.74). Furthermore, acceleration data recorded during different behaviours was studied to ascertain threshold values for objectively defining behaviour categories. Importantly, while subsequent accelerometer field deployments were relatively short they agreed with previous studies on the proportion of time that cane toads locomote yet suggest that the metabolic rate of cane toads in the wild may sometimes be considerably higher than might be assumed based on data for other species

A different angle: comparative analyses of whole-animal transport costs running uphill

Comparative work on animals' costs of terrestrial locomotion has focussed on the underpinning physiology and biomechanics. Often, much of an animal's energy budget is spent on moving around thus there is also value in interpreting such data from an ecological perspective. When animals move through their environment they encounter topographical variation, and this is a key factor that can dramatically affect their energy expenditure. We collated published data on the costs for birds and mammals to locomote terrestrially on inclines, and investigated the scaling relationships using a phylogenetically informed approach. We show that smaller animals have a greater mass-specific cost of transport on inclines across the body mass range analysed. We also demonstrate that the increase in cost for smaller animals to run up a slope relative to along a flat surface is comparatively low. Heavier animals show larger absolute and relative increases in energy cost to travel uphill. Consideration of all aspects of the cost of incline locomotion – absolute, relative, and mass-specific – provides a fuller understanding of the interactions between transport costs, body mass, incline gradient and phylogeny, and enables us to consider their ecological implications, which we couch within the context of the ‘energy landscape‘.</jats:p

Discontinuous gas exchange in insects: Is it all in their heads?

Some insects display an intermittent pattern of gas exchange while at rest, often going hours between breaths. These discontinuous gas exchange cycles (DGCs) are known to have evolved independently within five insect orders, but their possible adaptive benefit and evolutionary origin remain an enigma. Current research is primarily concerned with testing three adaptive hypotheses: that DGCs originally evolved or are currently maintained to (1) limit respiratory water loss, (2) enhance gas exchange in subterranean environments, or (3) limit oxidative damage. These adaptive explanations fail to unite a range of apparently contradictory observations regarding the insects that display DGCs and the conditions under which they occur. Here we argue that DGCs are explained by circadian, developmental, or artificially induced reductions in brain activity. We conclude that this pattern results from the thoracic and abdominal ganglia regulating ventilation in the absence of control from higher neural centers, and it is indicative of a sleeplike state. © 2010 by The University of Chicago

Discontinuous gas exchange, water loss, and metabolism in Protaetia cretica (Cetoniinae, Scarabaeidae)

Insects are at high risk of desiccation because of their small size, high surface-area-to-volume ratio, and air-filled tracheal system that ramifies throughout their bodies to transport O and CO to and from respiring cells. Although the tracheal system offers a high-conductance pathway for the movement of respiratory gases, it has the unintended consequence of allowing respiratory transpiration to the atmosphere. When resting, many species exchange respiratory gases discontinuously, and an early hypothesis for the origin of these discontinuous gas exchange cycles (DGCs) is that they serve to reduce respiratory water loss. In this study, we test this "hygric" hypothesis by comparing rates of CO exchange and water loss among flower beetles Protaetia cretica (Cetoniinae, Scarabaeidae) breathing either continuously or discontinuously. We show that, consistent with the expectations of the hygric hypothesis, rates of total water loss are higher during continuous gas exchange than during discontinuous gas exchange and that the ratio of respiratory water loss to CO exchange is lower during discontinuous gas exchange. This conclusion is in agreement with other studies of beetles and cockroaches that also support the hygric hypothesis. However, this result does not exclude other adaptive hypotheses supported by work on ants and moth pupae. This ambiguity may arise because there are multiple independent evolutionary origins of DGCs and no single adaptive function underlying their genesis. Alternatively, the observed reduction in water loss during DGCs may be a side effect of a nonadaptive gas exchange pattern that is elicited during periods of inactivity

Chandra Observation of the Radio Source / X-ray Gas Interaction in the Cooling Flow Cluster Abell 2052

We present a Chandra observation of Abell 2052, a cooling flow cluster with a central cD that hosts the complex radio source 3C 317. The data reveal ``holes'' in the X-ray emission that are coincident with the radio lobes. The holes are surrounded by bright ``shells'' of X-ray emission. The data are consistent with the radio source displacing and compressing, and at the same time being confined by, the X-ray gas. The compression of the X-ray shells appears to have been relatively gentle and, at most, slightly transonic. The pressure in the X-ray gas (the shells and surrounding cooler gas) is approximately an order of magnitude higher than the minimum pressure derived for the radio source, suggesting that an additional source of pressure is needed to support the radio plasma. The compression of the X-ray shells has speeded up the cooling of the shells, and optical emission line filaments are found coincident with the brightest regions of the shells.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; for high-resolution color figures, see http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~elb6n/abell2052.htm

Competition in benthic marine invertebrates: the unrecognized role of exploitative competition for oxygen

Competition is a ubiquitous structuring force across systems, but different fields emphasize the role of different types of competition. In benthic marine environments, where some of the classic examples of competition were described, there is a strong emphasis on interference competition: marine invertebrates are assumed to compete fiercely for the limiting resource of space. Much of our understanding of the dynamics of this system is based on this assumption, yet empirical studies often find that increases in density can reduce performance despite free space being available. Furthermore, the assumption that space is the exclusively limiting resource raises paradoxes regarding species coexistence in this system. Here, we measure the availability of oxygen in the field and in the laboratory, as well as the tolerance of resident species to low-oxygen conditions. We show that oxygen can be the primary limiting resource in some instances, and that exploitative competition for this resource is very likely among benthic marine invertebrates. Furthermore, growth form (and the associated risk of oxygen limitation) covaries with the ability to withstand oxygen-poor conditions across a wide range of taxa. Oxygen availability at very small scales may influence the distribution and abundance of sessile marine invertebrates more than is currently appreciated. Furthermore, competition for multiple resources (space and oxygen) and trade-offs in competitive ability for each may promote coexistence in this system

X-ray Properties of the Abell 644 Cluster of Galaxies

We use new ASCA observations and archival ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) data to determine the X-ray spectral properties of the intracluster gas in Abell 644. From the overall spectrum, we determine the average gas temperature to be 8.64 (+0.67,-0.56) keV, and an abundance of 0.32 (+/-0.04) $Z_{\odot}$. The global ASCA and ROSAT spectra imply a cooling rate of 214 (+100,-91) $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. The PSPC X-ray surface brightness profile and the ASCA data suggest a somewhat higher cooling rate. We determine the gravitational mass and gas mass as a function of radius. The total gravitating mass within 1.2 Mpc is $6.2\times10^{14}$ $M_{\odot}$, of which 20% is in the form of hot gas. There is a region of elevated temperature 1.5-5 arcmin to the west of the cluster center. The south-southwest region of the cluster also shows excess emission in the ROSAT PSPC X-ray image, aligned with the major axis of the optical cD galaxy in the center of the cluster. We argue that the cluster is undergoing or has recently undergone a minor merger. The combination of a fairly strong cooling flow and evidence for a merger make this cluster an interesting case to test the disruption of cooling flow in mergers.Comment: 26 pages LaTeX including 9 eps figures + 4 pages LaTeX tables (landscape); accepted to ApJ, uses aaspp