The amount of oxygen used by a house fly, at a steady temperature of 15 degree C

Question

The amount of oxygen used by a house fly, at a steady temperature of 15 degree C, can be compared to its oxygen use at a steady temperature to 25 degree C. Knowing that increased temperature leads to increased biochemical reaction rates, and that flies are an incredible collection of biochemical reactions, you might reasonably predict that the rate of oxygen consumption by the flies is going to be higher at 25degree C than it was at 15 degree C. In fact, the rate of increase for many insects is about 2.5 times more oxygen use at 25 degree C versus 15 degree C. The calculated rate of increase, called Q_10 (see Unit 6), here is equal to 2.5, the slope of a line connecting the two data points (oxygen-consumption rates on the y-axis and temperature on the x-axis). The "10" in Q_10 refers to the 10 degree C increase from 15 degree C to 25 degree C.

Explanation / Answer

6a. The ratio of change in period is 0.39, whereas the ratio of change in the volume of oxygen consumption is 2.5.

To measure the ratio of period, lower temperature data is taken as the numerator and data from higher temperature is taken as denominator. This is due to the fact that with an increase in temperature, we expect a decrease in the time period of the circadian rhythms. ON the other hand, the reverse of this data is taken for the volume measurement since an increase in temperature is expected to result in an increase in oxygen consumption.

6b. For Euglena gracilis, value of tau decreased with an increase in 100o C. This indicates that at higher temperature, tau us shortened in euglena to a considerable extent, the ration being 1.12

In Phaseolus multiflorus, the ratio of tau is 1.04

In Lacerta sicula, the ratio of tau is 1.04. In all the examples, tau decreased showing that the organism's metabolic rates increased with the increased temperature.

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