Respirometry dataset for oxygen consumption measurements in carabid beetles

OverviewThis dataset originates from a preliminary respirometry study on carabid beetles from the Elbe Estuary (Northern Germany), encompassing species from freshwater and saltmarsh habitats along a salinity gradient. The study was designed to establish and validate a workflow for measuring oxygen consumption, including chamber setup, sensor recording, drift correction, and calculation of absolute and mass-specific metabolic rates. Oxygen consumption was measured for five species (Carabus auratus, Carabus granulatus, Limodromus assimilis, Poecilus versicolor and Pterostichus niger) using sealed glass vials connected to an optical oxygen system. The dataset provides individual-level measurements and serves primarily as a methodological reference for future respirometry studies on ground-dwelling arthropods. The O2 consumption rates of carabid beetles showed interspecific differences and followed metabolic scaling theory, revealing an inverse relationship between body mass and mass-specific metabolic rates across species (Figure 3). O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=127 SRC="FIGDIR/small/720111v1_fig3.gif" ALT="Figure 3"> View larger version (17K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@f41f27org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@12939eeorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@19a4630org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@17611ba_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG O_FLOATNOFigure 3:C_FLOATNO Oxygen consumption rates of Carabid species per (a) animal in [ml O2 h-1] and as (b) mass-specific consumption rate [ml O2 h-1 g-1]. Points represent mean oxygen consumption per individual (C. auratus: n = 2; L. assimilis: n = 6; P. versicolor: n = 7; P. niger: n = 6). C_FIG