Dr. Jutta Schmid

Department of Experimental Ecology University of Ulm Albert Einstein Allee 11 89069 Ulm Germany Tel.: ++49 (0)731 - 50 22668 Fax: ++49 (0)731 - 50 22683 email: jutta.schmid@biologie.uni-ulm.de

Financial support:
Habilitandenstipendium from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG;SCHM 1391/2).

Publications and abstracts

Current projects:

Since eight years, I am carrying out ecophysiological studies on energy metabolism and thermoregulation of small mammals. The energy budget of an animal can provide much insight knowledge into its physiology, ecology, and evolution, particularly while behaving normally in its natural habitat.
In general, I am interested in adaptations of animals to seasonal environments (i.e. fluctuations in climate and resource availability). The most extreme adaptation to cope with seasonal energy shortages and low temperatures is daily and prolonged torpor. The main emphasis of my research is to investigate the pattern of utilisation of torpor and its impact on energy budgets in free-living mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.), small nocturnal primates endemic to Madagascar. I combine physiological and behavioral studies and discuss torpor as a multifunctional process within the ecological setting. Specifically, I measure daily energy expenditure (DEE) and water turnover using doubly labelled water (D218O), I implant temperature sensitive dataloggers to monitor body temperature (Tb), and I use radio collars to record activity and home range. Furthermore, I regularly carry out mark/recapture studies to document seasonal changes in body mass, and to discuss evolutionary aspects and population dynamics.
Geographic variation in life history traits may partly be caused by differences in maintenance metabolism among individuals from different populations. To estimate maintenance costs of individuals in natural populations, I currently investigate energy metabolism of edible dormice (Glis glis) from two populations around Tübingen, Germany. Further investigations with other native, but also tropical, small mammal species are planned.
In addition, I am also interested in energy costs of reproduction. Specifically, I am interested in the question to which extent lactating females are burdened by increased energy and water expenditures in the wild. During a brief study in Tasmania, Australia, I investigated energy costs of lactation in free-ranging short-beaked echidnas, Tachyglossus aculeatus.
Finally, I am involved in conservation planning and biodiversity protection in Madagascar. Tropical forests not only suffer from forest reduction in general, but also from increasing fragmentation of the remaining forests. Forest fragmentation and habitat loss affect species richness and diversity, as they can cause changes in species-specific population dynamics. Thus, in collaboration with Conservation International (CI, Washington D.C.) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF, Madagascar), we collect basic information of the biological resources to meet the critical need for rapid identification of priority areas.

Pictorial guide:

Slide 1: Grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus)
Grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) are small (mean body mass of 60 g) primates endemic to Madagascar. They are found in the dry deciduous forests and secondary vegetation of southern and western Madagascar, where the animals spend the day alone or in groups in tree holes or nests. During their solitary nocturnal activity they feed on fruits, small animals, gum and insect secretions. Reproductive activity is photoperiodically controlled and takes place at the beginning of the rainy season. After two months of gestation they give birth to 1-3 young, which are weaned about two months later.

Slide 2+3: Forêt de Kirindy in Western Madagascar
The Forêt de Kirindy is a deciduous dry forest in western Madagascar, some 60 km northeast of Morondava. This site is located in a 12,000-ha forestry concession of the Centre de Formation Professionelle Forestière de Morondava (CFPF). The area around Morondava has pronounced seasonality with a hot rainy season between December and March (Slide 2) and a cool dry season of 7-8 months with virtually no precipitation (Slide 3). Temperature during the dry season shows extreme diurnal variations, with cold nights (4°C) and hot days (32°C), and a mean of 23.5°C. Thus, unfavourable environmental conditions combined with heat loss from the mouse lemurs´ relatively large body surface, suggest considerable advantages od daily or prolonged torpor for energy and water conservation.

Slide 4: Torpid grey mouse lemur
Mouse lemurs are known for their ability to enter daily or seasonal torpor during the cool dry season when temperatures are low and food and water is scarce. This torpid mouse lemur shows the typical curled up body posture to reduce surface area. During daily torpor metabolic rate is reduced to about 90 % of the normothermic value and body temperature drops down to 7°C.

Slide 5: Forst fragmentation in Madagascar
Slash-and-burn agriculture, locally known as tavy, is one of the greatest cause of forest destruction and fragmentation in Madagascar. Identified by Conservation International´s hotspots reanalysis, Madagascar is one of the world´s top five biodiversity hotspots featuring exceptional concentrations of endemic species and exceptional loss of habitat (Myers N., Mittermeier R.A., Mittermeier C.G., da Fonseca G.A.B., Kent J. (2000): Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403: 853-858). Thus, the protection of Madagascar´s last remaining biotic communities and ecosystems is of national and international significance.

Slide 6: Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus)
The short-beaked echidna, Tachyglossus aculeatus, is one of the three extant species of monotreme, or egg-laying mammal. It occurs in all major terrestrial ecosystems throughout Australia and parts of New Guinea.

Slide 7: Edible dormice (Glis glis)
The edible dormouse (Glis glis) has a widespread distribution in southern Europe where it colonizes coniferous and mixed forests. They have a distinctive lifestyle, with annual cycles of fat storage, body temperature, and acitivity. Edible dormice hibernate from October until May, about 50 - 100 cm below the ground. During this inactivity phase of 7-8 months the animals use up their previously stored fat reserves. The activity season of the edible dormouse lasts 4-5 months and it usually reproduces only once every second year.

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