Biologging

Taking the Lab into the Field

Abstract

Comparative physiology as a field investigates how animals function within their environments at different levels of biological organization. Central to this goal is understanding how internal systems relate to the external context animals inhabit. An important tool for characterizing the function of physiological systems in environmental context is biologging. Biologging is a technique that uses either transmitted or stored radio signals to record physiological measurements, such as heart rate, activity, or oxygen concentration, and environmental characteristics, such as geographical location, depth/altitude, and temperature. In this infographic, the uses and considerations for using biologgers in the field are presented in a concise way to introduce high school or undergraduate students to this field of research and application.