Thermal-safety margins and the necessity of thermoregulatory behavior across latitude and elevation

Jennifer M Sunday; Amanda E Bates; Michael R Kearney; Robert K Colwell; Nicholas K Dulvy; John T Longino; Raymond B Huey

Journal article

Thermal-safety margins and the necessity of thermoregulatory behavior across latitude and elevation

Jennifer M Sunday, Amanda E Bates, Michael R Kearney, Robert K Colwell, Nicholas K Dulvy, John T Longino, Raymond B Huey

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | NATL ACAD SCIENCES | Published : 2014

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1316145111

Abstract

Physiological thermal-tolerance limits of terrestrial ectotherms often exceed local air temperatures, implying a high degree of thermal safety (an excess of warm or cold thermal tolerance). However, air temperatures can be very different from the equilibrium body temperature of an individual ectotherm. Here, we compile thermal-tolerance limits of ectotherms across a wide range of latitudes and elevations and compare these thermal limits both to air and to operative body temperatures (theoretically equilibrated body temperatures) of small ectothermic animals during the warmest and coldest times of the year. We show that extreme operative body temperatures in exposed habitats match or exceed t..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Michael Kearney Author Biosciences

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Grants

Awarded by US National Science Foundation

Awarded by Australian Research Fellowship from the Australian Research Council

Awarded by Direct For Biological Sciences

Awarded by Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems

Funding Acknowledgements

We thank the members of the Earth to Ocean research group at Simon Fraser University for feedback and discussions. J.M.S. was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the University of British Columbia Biodiversity Research Centre. N.K.D. was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and by the Canada Research Chairs program. The US National Science Foundation provided funding to R. K. C. (DEB 0639979 and DBI 0851245), J.T.L. (DEB-1157383; Project LLAMA), and R. B. H. (1038016). M. R. K. was funded by an Australian Research Fellowship (DP110102813) from the Australian Research Council. Thanks also to G. Quinn, who allocated salary to A. E. B. for contribution to this study.