Chamber of Crickets: Changing Metabolisms in Different Temperatures

Abstract

Ectotherms are unable to regulate their own body temperature like endotherms. They use “external sources of temperature to regulate…” (Boundless 2016). Because of this, their surrounding environment heavily affects their rate of metabolism—but what effects does it have exactly? We hypothesize that a change in temperature, regardless of increase or decrease, will have an effect on metabolic rate.  We decided to test crickets and measure how they would respond in both an increase and a decrease in temperature. Using ten crickets for each trial, we measured the metabolic rate in room temperature, elevated temperature, and at a decreased temperature. Our results showed that the heat affected increased their metabolic rate. However, the cold (on average) did not. Our experiment was done well, but could have been better. For a future experiment of the same kind, we could use more crickets. We could also use different non-ambient temperatures.