Study stay at the University of Copenhagen
After the fieldwork in September, Jelena and Lina travelled to Denmark for a study stay during which they measured the metabolic rate of parts of colonies collected on Mljet and Veliki Brijun. Jelena spent the entire month of October in Copenhagen, while Lina stayed for two months, until the end of November. In October, Jelena gave two lectures on ant thermal ecology, both to students and as part of a section seminar, and exchanged ideas with numerous colleagues who work on ants, termites, and thermal biology in general.
The laboratory with the respirometry system for measuring metabolism, i.e. CO2 respirometry, is located at the University of Copenhagen, within the Section for Evolution and Ecology, and the head of the laboratory is Professor Jonathan Shik, PhD. From the very beginning, Professor Shik helped us get acquainted with the system and provided any necessary support during the measurements. Also, of great help were the technicians who provided us with access to all the equipment we needed, as well as housing for our ants.
Measuring the amount of carbon dioxide that ants produce requires precision and patience, so we started working on the system immediately after arrival and worked until the very end of the mobility. In doing so, Lina learned many new techniques, encountered new tools, and gained ideas that she will be able to apply in Zagreb, but also in the field. Through the experiment, we used a large number of ants that we tested daily in two rounds, and in addition to measuring metabolism, Lina also conducted a combined measurement of activity and metabolism.
For measuring activity and metabolism, she had to put together a second system that allows insight into how ant activity affects metabolism and provides a broader context for understanding this performance trait.
Aside from the experiment itself, we participated in sectional meetings and seminars where we had the opportunity to attend a lecture by entomologist Elsa Youngsteadt, whose field overlaps with the topic of our project. Lina also participated in the symposium “Body size in biology: a symposium on metabolic scaling”, where she heard many new interesting things and saw other examples of the use of respirometry in research.
In addition to the many hours spent in the laboratory, we managed to explore and see rainy and windy Copenhagen, its canals, cafes, and cultural attractions on the weekend. We returned to Zagreb with new knowledge, numerous ideas for the future, and an abundance of data that we will combine with field data on the same colonies.
