Impacts of climate warming on terrestrial ectotherms across latitude.
Curtis Deutsch,Joshua J. Tewksbury,Raymond B. Huey,Kimberly S. Sheldon,Cameron K. Ghalambor,David C. Haak,Paul R. Martin,Paul R. Martin +7 more
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The results show that warming in the tropics, although relatively small in magnitude, is likely to have the most deleterious consequences because tropical insects are relatively sensitive to temperature change and are currently living very close to their optimal temperature, so that warming may even enhance their fitness.Abstract:
The impact of anthropogenic climate change on terrestrial organisms is often predicted to increase with latitude, in parallel with the rate of warming. Yet the biological impact of rising temperatures also depends on the physiological sensitivity of organisms to temperature change. We integrate empirical fitness curves describing the thermal tolerance of terrestrial insects from around the world with the projected geographic distribution of climate change for the next century to estimate the direct impact of warming on insect fitness across latitude. The results show that warming in the tropics, although relatively small in magnitude, is likely to have the most deleterious consequences because tropical insects are relatively sensitive to temperature change and are currently living very close to their optimal temperature. In contrast, species at higher latitudes have broader thermal tolerance and are living in climates that are currently cooler than their physiological optima, so that warming may even enhance their fitness. Available thermal tolerance data for several vertebrate taxa exhibit similar patterns, suggesting that these results are general for terrestrial ectotherms. Our analyses imply that, in the absence of ameliorating factors such as migration and adaptation, the greatest extinction risks from global warming may be in the tropics, where biological diversity is also greatest.read more
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Climate Change, Ecology and Systematics: A critical appraisal of the meaning and diagnosability of cryptic evolutionary diversity, and its implications for conservation in the face of climate change
TL;DR: This chapter critically examines concerns about taxonomy and systematics with respect to cryptic species recognition, claims about the relative usefulness of morphological versus genetic data for species delimitation, and the kinds of inferential errors that attach to the process of inferring species boundaries.
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Direct benefits and indirect costs of warm temperatures for high‐elevation populations of a solitary bee
TL;DR: Temperature-dependence of nesting activity and lifetime reproductive output over 3 yr in subalpine populations of a pollen-specialist bee, Osmia iridis, and natural enemies can play a key role in pollinator population regulation and should not be overlooked in forecasts of pollinator responses to climate change.
Journal ArticleDOI
Potential for adaptive evolution at species range margins: contrasting interactions between red coral populations and their environment in a changing ocean
Jean-Baptiste Ledoux,Jean-Baptiste Ledoux,Jean-Baptiste Ledoux,Didier Aurelle,Nathaniel Bensoussan,Christian Marschal,Jean-Pierre Féral,Joaquim Garrabou,Joaquim Garrabou +8 more
TL;DR: The study questions the relevance of the deep refugia hypothesis and highlights the conservation value of marginal populations as a putative reservoir of adaptive genetic polymorphism, and posit that genetic drift may be more important than gene flow in the adaptation of the red coral.
Journal ArticleDOI
Assessing the relative importance of environmental effects, carry-over effects and species differences in thermal stress resistance: a comparison of Drosophilids across field and laboratory generations.
TL;DR: The findings highlight that inherent differences among species are difficult to characterise accurately without controlling for environmental sources of variation and carry-over effects, and emphasise the complex nature of carry- over effects that vary depending on the nature of stress traits and the species being evaluated.
Book ChapterDOI
Increased Stream Productivity with Warming Supports Higher Trophic Levels
Elísabet R. Hannesdóttir,Gísli Már Gíslason,Jón S. Ólafsson,Ólafur Patrick Ólafsson,Eoin J. O'Gorman,Eoin J. O'Gorman +5 more
TL;DR: The findings suggest that warming does not necessarily favour the small in aquatic ecosystems, with high-resource availability, faster reproductive and growth rates and greater production all contributing to meet the high-metabolic demands of apex predators in warmer environments.
References
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