Journal article

Predicting organismal vulnerability to climate warming: Roles of behaviour, physiology and adaptation

RB Huey, MR Kearney, A Krockenberger, JAM Holtum, M Jess, SE Williams

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences | Published : 2012

Abstract

A recently developed integrative framework proposes that the vulnerability of a species to environmental change depends on the species' exposure and sensitivity to environmental change, its resilience to perturbations and its potential to adapt to change. These vulnerability criteria require behavioural, physiological and genetic data. With this information in hand, biologists can predict organisms most at risk from environmental change. Biologists and managers can then target organisms and habitats most at risk. Unfortunately, the required data (e.g. optimal physiological temperatures). are rarely available. Here, we evaluate the reliability of potential proxies (e.g. critical temperatures)..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by National Science Foundation


Funding Acknowledgements

This paper emerged from a workshop ('Predicting climate change impacts on biodiversity: the way forward') held in Daintree, Queensland, Australia (17-21 November 2008). This workshop was organized by the Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change at James Cook University and funded by the MTSRF. We thank other participants for ideas that emerged during discussions, B. Sinervo and S. Clusella-Trullas for comments, and C. Franklin and F. Seebacher for the opportunity to participate in this volume. R. B. H. was supported by NSF grant IBN-0416843. M. R. K. was supported by an ARC Australian Research Fellowship DP110101776.