Ecotypic variation in the context of global climate change: revisiting the rules

Millien, Virginie; Lyons, S. Kathleen; Olson, Link E.; Smith, Felisa A.; Wilson, Anthony B.; Yom‐Tov, Yoram

doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00928.x

Cited by 578 publications

(421 citation statements)

References 111 publications

(203 reference statements)

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“…This prediction is generally supported by the examples of intraspecific variation in body size consistent with Bergmann's rule that have been documented in many, but by no means all, kinds of mammals and birds (10,11).…”

supporting

confidence: 65%

Metabolic heat production and thermal conductance are mass-independent adaptations to thermal environment in birds and mammals

Fristoe

Burger

Balk

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

122

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The extent to which different kinds of organisms have adapted to environmental temperature regimes is central to understanding how they respond to climate change. The Scholander-Irving (S-I) model of heat transfer lays the foundation for explaining how endothermic birds and mammals maintain their high, relatively constant body temperatures in the face of wide variation in environmental temperature. The S-I model shows how body temperature is regulated by balancing the rates of heat production and heat loss. Both rates scale with body size, suggesting that larger animals should be better adapted to cold environments than smaller animals, and vice versa. However, the global distributions of ∼9,000 species of terrestrial birds and mammals show that the entire range of body sizes occurs in nearly all climatic regimes. Using physiological and environmental temperature data for 211 bird and 178 mammal species, we test for mass-independent adaptive changes in two key parameters of the S-I model: basal metabolic rate (BMR) and thermal conductance. We derive an axis of thermal adaptation that is independent of body size, extends the S-I model, and highlights interactions among physiological and morphological traits that allow endotherms to persist in a wide range of temperatures. Our macrophysiological and macroecological analyses support our predictions that shifts in BMR and thermal conductance confer important adaptations to environmental temperature in both birds and mammals.macrophysiology | Bergmann's rule | body size | metabolic rate | thermal conductance A fundamental problem in ecology and biogeography is to elucidate the physiological processes that determine the environmental tolerances and influence the distributions of species. Across their nearly worldwide distributions, endothermic birds and mammals maintain near-constant body temperatures in the face of extreme and fluctuating environmental temperatures. Elucidating the morphological and physiological adaptations that allow species to inhabit such a wide spectrum of thermal environments is important for understanding the distribution of biodiversity and for predicting responses of species to climate change (1, 2).In a seminal paper, Scholander et al. (3) showed how endotherms balance rates of heat production and heat loss so as to maintain a constant body temperature in the face of varying environmental temperatures. The essence of the Scholander-Irving (S-I) model is the equation:where T b is body temperature, T a is ambient temperature, B is the rate of metabolic heat production, and C is the rate of heat loss or thermal conductance (4). For a resting animal, which has minimized heat loss by maximizing insulation and optimizing body posture, C = minimum thermal conductance (C MIN ); B = basal metabolic rate (BMR); and T a = T lc , where T lc is the lower critical temperature or the lower limit of the thermal neutral zone (TNZ).The TNZ is ecologically important because it is the range of environmental temperatures where energy expenditure is minimal; out...

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supporting

confidence: 65%

Metabolic heat production and thermal conductance are mass-independent adaptations to thermal environment in birds and mammals

Fristoe

Burger

Balk

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

122

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…It is known that 67% of mammalian species display size trends which conform to Bergmann's rule [15], but those with a body weight between 4 and 500 g have a lower tendency to conform. Body mass responds to Bergmann's rule better than linear or dental measurements [16].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bergmann’s rule for Neomys fodiens in the middle of the distribution range

2014

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Abstract:The body size of Palearctic Sorex shrews decreases at higher latitudes, and as such the Bergmann's rule does not work. However, no analysis has ever been done for water shrew (Neomys fodiens) in the middle of distribution range. Analysis of available literature data showed that some body and skull measurements of N. fodiens are negatively correlated to latitude. Measurements of 158 water shrews from Estonia and Lithuania were also analyzed with respect to the short scale latitudinal pattern. We found that populations are separated (Wilk's lambda = 0.363, p<0.0001). Differences are related to PC1 (skull size), explaining 49.80% of the variance and PC2 (body size), explaining 10.06% of the variance. Estonian shrews are smaller in their body and skull (most differences significant) and their skulls are relatively shorter and wider in the area of the brain case. Thus, the negative correlation of body and skull size to latitude in N. fodiens is applicable even over quite short latitudinal distances. Further analysis of diagnostic characters between N. fodiens and N. anomalus is required.

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“…It is worth noting that our sampling protocol may have accentuated differences among variances, because these were derived from population means for body size and most life histories, and from individual values for niche traits. However, the abundant evidence of ecotypic differentiation through species Palearctic distribution [44] and the local extent of niche data should have limited the magnitude of this bias.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolutionary convergence of avian lifestyles and their constrained coevolution with species' ecological niche

et al. 2015

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The fit between life histories and ecological niche is a paradigm of phenotypic evolution, also widely used to explain patterns of species co-occurrence. By analysing the lifestyles of a sympatric avian assemblage, we show that species' solutions to environmental problems are not unbound. We identify a life-history continuum structured on the cost of reproduction along a temperature gradient, as well as habitat-driven parental behaviour. However, environmental fit and trait convergence are limited by niche filling and by within-species variability of niche traits, which is greater than variability of life histories. Phylogeny, allometry and trade-offs are other important constraints: lifetime reproductive investment is tightly bound to body size, and the optimal allocation to reproduction for a given size is not established by niche characteristics but by trade-offs with survival. Life histories thus keep pace with habitat and climate, but under the limitations imposed by metabolism, trade-offs among traits and species' realized niche.

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Ecotypic variation in the context of global climate change: revisiting the rules

Cited by 578 publications

References 111 publications

Metabolic heat production and thermal conductance are mass-independent adaptations to thermal environment in birds and mammals

Metabolic heat production and thermal conductance are mass-independent adaptations to thermal environment in birds and mammals

Bergmann’s rule for Neomys fodiens in the middle of the distribution range

The evolutionary convergence of avian lifestyles and their constrained coevolution with species' ecological niche

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