Basal metabolic rate and the mass of tissues differing in metabolic scope: Migration-related covariation between individual knots Calidris canutus

To examine whether variability in the basal metabolic rate (BMR) of migrant shorebirds is a function of a variably sized metabolic machinery or of temporal changes in metabolic intensities at the tissue level, BMR, body composition and activity of cytochrome-c oxidase (CCO, a marker for maximum tissue respiration) were measured in 14 captive Knots Calidris canutus islandica in late spring, during the period of mass loss after the migratory body mass peak. Although the body mass cycle of captive birds closely followed the changes of free-living conspecifics, their fat-free mass of muscles and organs was somewhat lower and their fat content higher. BMR significantly declined during mass loss, as did the fat-free dry mass. BMR was an allometric function of both body mass (exponent=0.687) and lean dry mass (exponent=1.132). Fat-free dry mass of heart sind flight muscle decreased with the loss of fat. CCO-activity was determined in heart, flight muscle, leg muscle, liver and kidney. It was highest in heart and flight muscle and low in the other tissues. CCO-activity was not correlated with total fat mass. Intraspecific migration-related variation in BMR seems better explained by variation in the mass of organs with a high metabolic scope (as indicated by high CCO-activity), than by variation in the intensity of tissue metabolism