Can behavior douse the fire of climate warming?

Huey, Raymond B.; Tewksbury, Joshua J.

doi:10.1073/pnas.0900934106

Cited by 131 publications

(115 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The low rate of temperature increase in microhabitats also shows that species are thermally protected for longer periods of time under extreme temperature increases than would otherwise be the case in understorey ambient temperatures (see also (Scheffers, Edwards et al 2014) for primary forests). Our findings suggest that microhabitats will become an increasingly important resource to help ectotherm communities mitigate the negative impacts of climate change (Huey and Tewksbury 2009)…”

Section: Are Secondary Forests Climate Change Ready?mentioning

confidence: 88%

Thermally buffered microhabitats recovery in tropical secondary forests following land abandonment

Pliego

Scheffers

Basham

et al. 2016

Biological Conservation

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Given the dramatic loss of tropical forests and accelerating climate change, secondary forest regeneration is increasingly recognised as being an important method for reversing losses in biodiversity and carbon stocks. The recolonisation of biodiversity within secondary forests depends upon the recovery of forest structure, including the range of microhabitats used by diverse communities. Here, we investigate the return of critical microhabitats along a successional gradient of secondary forest in the Tropical Andes of Colombia. We measured the abundance of live (bromeliads, tree ferns and moss) and dead (deadwood and leaf litter) microhabitats across three landscapes, each encompassing primary, and young and old secondary forests. Considering the increasing rate of climate warming in the region, we also explored whether these microhabitats provide thermally buffered microclimates. We found that secondary forests have different composition and lower complexity of microhabitats than primary forests, but that the abundance of bromeliads and deadwood recover towards primary levels. Each microhabitat reduces exposure to extreme temperatures, serving as thermal buffers by reducing maximum and increasing minimum temperatures among all forest types. These benefits exist despite ambient temperatures in secondary forests surpassing those of primary forests by 1-2⁰C on average. The protection of secondary forest and promotion of further forest regrowth in the Tropical Andes should represent an urgent investment for conservation, and the value of these secondary forests for offering critical microhabitats and buffered microclimates under climate change should not be overlooked.

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Section: Are Secondary Forests Climate Change Ready?mentioning

confidence: 88%

Thermally buffered microhabitats recovery in tropical secondary forests following land abandonment

Pliego

Scheffers

Basham

et al. 2016

Biological Conservation

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“…One possible explanation for erratic species shifts is that the temperatures used to predict range shifts were measured at scales that do not account for the presence of buffered microhabitats and the slower rates of temperature change within microhabitats compared with macrohabitats. Combined with our illustration of the potential for microhabitat buffering, this suggests that we need a next generation of predictive models that account for species' ability to exploit favourable microclimates, via the inclusion of species physiological limitations [24], trade-offs from using climate refuges for extended periods of time [9] and detailed information about fine-resolution temperature changes and extreme conditions at the microhabitat scale [5,25]. rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org Biol.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These include under rocks and logs, and inside the soil, tree holes or epiphytes, all of which could offer buffered microclimates and act as a mediating force of ambient temperatures at fine spatial scales and expand an animal's thermal safety margin by several degrees centigrade [9,11,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microhabitats in the tropics buffer temperature in a globally coherent manner

et al. 2014

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Vegetated habitats contain a variety of fine-scale features that can ameliorate temperate extremes. These buffered microhabitats may be used by species to evade extreme weather and novel climates in the future. Yet, the magnitude and extent of this buffering on a global scale remains unknown. Across all tropical continents and using 36 published studies, we assessed temperature buffering from within microhabitats across various habitat strata and structures (e.g. soil, logs, epiphytes and tree holes) and compared them to non-buffered macro-scale ambient temperatures (the thermal control). Microhabitats buffered temperature by 3.98C and reduced maximum temperatures by 3.58C. Buffering was most pronounced in tropical lowlands where temperatures were most variable. With the expected increase in extreme weather events, microhabitats should provide species with a local layer of protection that is not captured by traditional climate assessments, which are typically derived from macro-scale temperatures (e.g. satellites). Our data illustrate the need for a next generation of predictive models that account for species' ability to move within microhabitats to exploit favourable buffered microclimates.

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“…As ectotherms, they are highly sensitive to local ambient thermal conditions (e.g. Huey and Tewksbury 2009;Kearney et al 2009). Many reptile species exhibit low vagility (and hence, are unable to migrate in response to changing conditions: Jiguet et al 2007) and low reproductive output (McKinney 1997;Williams et al 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting the effects of climate change on reproductive fitness of an endangered montane lizard, Eulamprus leuraensis (Scincidae)

Dubey

Shine

2010

Climatic Change

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A shift in climatic conditions may directly modify critical organismal traits (such as reproductive output and offspring phenotypes), and experimental studies to document such direct effects thus may clarify the impacts of climate change on the species involved. The endangered Blue Mountains Water Skink (Eulamprus leuraensis) exhibits several traits predicted to imperil it under climate change: ectothermy, low reproductive output, specialisation to a restricted habitat type, montane endemicity, and a small geographic range. Congeneric species exhibit temperature-dependent sex determination, increasing potential sensitivity to climate change. We maintained wild-caught female lizards throughout pregnancy under thermal conditions simulating a shift in basking-time availability (3 vs 7 h/day) as might occur under climate change. Females with longer basking opportunities per day gave birth 2 weeks earlier, to slightly smaller offspring, that grew much faster in the first few weeks of life. Importantly, offspring sex ratios were not affected by maternal thermal regimes. Hence, some traits (e.g., offspring size, growth rates, dates of birth) are sensitive to ambient thermal conditions whereas other traits (e.g., offspring sex ratio and sprint speed) are not. On balance, the greatest threat to population persistence for E. leuraensis under climate change is likely to involve indirect effects mediated via habitat degradation (especially, drying-out of the hanging swamps) rather than direct thermal effects on lizard reproductive output or offspring phenotypes.

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Can behavior douse the fire of climate warming?

Cited by 131 publications

References 23 publications

Thermally buffered microhabitats recovery in tropical secondary forests following land abandonment

Thermally buffered microhabitats recovery in tropical secondary forests following land abandonment

Microhabitats in the tropics buffer temperature in a globally coherent manner

Predicting the effects of climate change on reproductive fitness of an endangered montane lizard, Eulamprus leuraensis (Scincidae)

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