The Study on Basal Metabolic Rate and Body Mass
The total number of calories needed by a person to keep up bodily processes like breathing and blood circulation when the body is at rest is called basal metabolic rate. (3280) Briga and Verhulst This study seeks to ascertain whether there is a connection between body mass and basal metabolic rate (BMR). The two animal groups selected to study this link were mammals and birds.
Data and Sample
The data for the mammals and birds produced by Quaadvark were graphed to create the content for this research. 68 species of birds and 302 species of mammals were used as the sample. The sample had different species with varying masses to obtain a conclusive result of the relationship between the two variables. The references used were book sources that discuss both basal metabolic rates and body weight and their relationship in both mammals and birds.
Results
Two figures with legends and one paragraph stating results.
Figure1. Relationship between mammalian Basal Metabolic Rate (W) and body mass (g) from a sample of 302 Mammals.
Figure2. Average Basal Metabolic Rate (W) against body mass (g) of 68 species of birds.
In both mammals and birds, the body mass was proportional to its BMR. A high body mass means a large number of cells which need more energy at rest, therefore, increasing the amount of energy required.
Discussion
The results obtained and presented in the graphs above for both mammals and birds showed that a relationship does exist between the animal's body mass and its Basal Metabolic Rate. Mammals with a higher body weight had higher levels of BMR and the same applied to mammals. The slight variations in birds may have been as a result of different variations in their environment such as temperature which could have influenced the BMR of those birds.
Works Cited
Briga, Michael, and Simon Verhulst. “Individual variation in metabolic reaction norms over ambient temperature causes low correlation between basal and standard metabolic rate.” Journal of Experimental Biology 220.18 (2017): 3280-3289.
Hudson, Lawrence N., Nick JB Isaac, and Daniel C. Reuman. “The relationship between body mass and basal metabolic rate among individual birds and mammals.” Journal of Animal Ecology 82.5 (2013): 1009-1020.
