Deleterious effects of thermal and water stresses on life history and physiology: a case study on woodlouse

Abstract

We tested independently the influences of increasing temperature and decreasing moisture on life history and physiological traits in the arthropod Armadillidium vulgare. Both increasing temperature and decreasing moisture led individual body mass and reproductive success to decrease. While immune cells density decreased and β-galactosidase activity increased with increasing temperature and decreasing moisture, suggesting a negative impact of these stresses on individual quality, increased temperature and decreased moisture affected differently the other biomarkers conjuring different underlying mechanisms depending on the stress applied. Our findings demonstrate overall a negative impact of high temperature and low moisture on woodlice welfare. Changing temperature or moisture had slightly different effects, illustrating the need of testing further the respective role of each of these key components of climate change on organisms to predict more reliably the future of our ecosystems.