Frogs burn ample fuel while freezing solid

The Canadian researchers have found out, frogs that cope with winter weather by freezing into a solid may be hit by climate change.

Wood frogs has the amazing ability to freeze their bodies into hard when the temperature drops below 0 C and they thaw out and hop away when it warms up again.

As a matter of fact freezing and thawing burns a surprisingly large amount of energy. The researchers measured the frogs' energy consumption in the lab during freezing and thawing.
While the cold-blooded animals slow down their metabolism consistently as temperatures drop, wood frogs suddenly increase their energy consumption when temperatures drop to about above zero. The metabolism increased suddenly again when they completely thawed out after being frozen before they start to breathe again.

By putting temperature sensors in the ground in an Ottawa-area forest during winter, the researchers discovered that the frogs freeze and thaw 15 to 25 times per winter, and calculated that the process consumes a large portion of the energy that a frog burns over the winter.

The problem is that the energy molecule used to fuel the freezing and thawing — glycogen — is the same one used by the frog to manufacture the glucose antifreeze that protects its cells from frostbite while the spaces between them are filled with ice. If the glycogen is depleted, the frog won't have enough antifreeze to survive the next freeze-thaw cycle.

Sinclair said that means the frog may be vulnerable to changes in snow cover and snowfall that are expected as the climate changes.

Source: ca.yahoo.com

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