Blood and muscle O2 storage capacity in North American diving ducks

Breath-hold diving presents air-breathing vertebrates with the challenge of maintaining aerobic respiration while exercising underwater. Adaptive increases in the oxygen (O2) storage capacity in the lungs, blood, or muscle tissues can enhance these reserves and greatly extend aerobic foraging time underwater. Here, we report blood- and muscle-O2 storage parameters (blood hemoglobin concentration ([Hb]), hematocrit, and myoglobin concentration ([Mb]) in the pectoralis and gastrocnemius) for 16 species of diving and dabbling ducks found in North America, and investigate which parameters are correlated with the diving behaviors reported in both the sea ducks (Mergini) and the pochards (Aythini). Both [Hb] in the blood and [Mb] in the gastrocnemius, a major leg muscle used in propulsion for these predominantly leg-propelled divers, were significantly higher in the sea ducks compared to the dabblers (Anatini). The pochards also showed a significant increase in [Hb] and were intermediate betw..., Hemoglobin and Hematocrit
Blood was obtained via cardiac puncture from freshly collected ducks.Immediately after extraction, [Hb] of the whole blood was analyzed using a HemoCue 201+ Analyzer (HemoCue America, Brea, CA, USA), which chemically converts Hb to azidemethemoglobin before measuring absorbance at 570 and 880 nm. All values were corrected using an avian correction factor of –1 g/dL (Simmons and Lill 2006). Packed red blood cell volume (Hct) was measured in quadruplicate using 75 mm heparinized capillary tubes. Tubes were spun for five minutes in a ZIPocrit centrifuge (LW Scientific, Lawrenceville, GA, USA), after which Hct was measured. All hematocrit measurements represent the mean of all four tubes, except in cases where one tube broke or was clearly faulty (e.g. 28% when three other tubes were 45%). Mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), which shows the average [Hb] in red blood cells, was calculated using the following equation: MCHC = (Hb[g/dL] x 100)/Hct[%]). 6..., , ## Data from: Blood- and muscle-oxygen storage capacity in North American diving ducks

---

This dataset contains information on blood and oxygen storage parameters in 16 species of diving and non-diving ducks. Blood oxygen meaurements include hemoglobin concentration and hematocrit values. Myoglobin concentration was measured in the pectoralis (major flight muscle) and gastrocnemius (major leg muscle used for swimming and diving).

## Description of the data and file structure

OxygenStorage_Raw.csv contains all data on blood and muscle oxygen storage measurements. Each individual bird and all its associated data are present in a single row.
Species: Latin genus_species name for each species.
ABA Code: The 4-letter code used by the American Birding Association, included to make coding species in R easier.
Diver?: Y or N to indicate whether diving is the main mode of food acquisition for this species.
Tribe: The taxonomic grouping used to split the two diving groups by their evolutions...