The Rate of Metabolic Change: A Study of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches in Changing Environments

Abstract

We are researching the relationship between temperature and metabolic rate in ectotherms. The key purpose of this experiment is to demonstrate whether lowering temperature will slow metabolic rate in cockroaches. We believe that this should be the case. This is important because ectotherms must survive in a multitude of environmental situations and without slowing their metabolism in colder environments, their survival would be impossible. Other studies have only lowered temperature to see a slower metabolic rate, while we are going to both cold and warm temperatures to further the data collected and see a larger pattern. We conducted an experiment at room temperature, cold temperature, and a warm temperature, with four trials at each, and recorded both temperature and oxygen levels over time. Our study adds more data to the ongoing research on metabolism of ectotherms and leads to some potential new questions.