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A matrix of species (i) by sites (j) indicating how physiological variables may be included in such a matrix and can provide insight into intraspecific, interspecific and assemblage-level variation. The variable is critical thermal minimum (CTmin, see Chown and Terblanche 2007). The red rectangle indicates intraspecific variation across space. Interspecific variation (green) is calculated as a mean value for the species at the centre of their latitudinal range, whilst assemblage characteristics are the mean and variance a trait across all species at a given site (blue; redrawn from Chown & McGeoch, in review) (Color figure online)
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Global environmental change (GEC) is a significant concern. However, forecasting the outcomes of this change for species and
ecosystems remains a major challenge. In particular, predicting specific changes in systems where initial conditions, instabilities,
and model errors have large impacts on the outcome is problematic. Indeed, predictive commun...
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... those that emerge at the interspecific and assemblage levels (Dray and Legendre 2008; Gaston et al. 2008). Traditionally, cells of such a matrix would comprise the presences/ absences of species or their respective abundances at a series of sites (e.g. Gaston 2002;Bell 2003). However, the matrix can be populated with virtually any parameter (e.g. Fig. 3), such as the resting metabolic rate or critical thermal minimum of a series of populations (see e.g. Klok and Chown 2003;Wikelski et al. 2003 for these kinds of data). Moreover, in the spatially explicit form, spatial variation in an environmental parameter (e.g. mean growing season temperature) might form the first matrix, and, with ...
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In the face of likely climate change impacts policy makers at different spatial scales need access to assessment tools that enable informed policy instruments to be designed. Recent scientific advances have facilitated the development of improved climate projections, but it remains to be seen whether these are translated into effective adaptation s...
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... Without this complementary data, it can be difficult to assess if observed physiological perturbations will resonate up the biological hierarchy, or if organisms will be able to compensate and avoid fitness reductions. Moreover, without population trend data, even robust studies connecting physiological impacts to changes in key vital rates expected to affect population dynamics can fall short of demonstrating population impacts in situ due to emergent properties and complexities of natural systems (Ames et al., 2020;Chown et al., 2010). Despite these challenges continuing to hinder progress in many systems (Ames et al., 2020), there has been a steady increase in interdisciplinary and creative approaches linking physiological measures with population trajectories and forecasts in recent years. ...
Marine and freshwater fishes are currently facing complex and extensive challenges, from warming waters and habitat degradation to direct human-wildlife interactions. Within this context, Conservation Physiology has made some important contributions to advance our understanding of the underlying mechanisms leading to these problems, as well as in offering practical solutions. However, there remains much space for the field to grow and significantly expand its impact on real-world conservation of fish biodiversity. As the planet continues to change, so do the problems that fish encounter, and so must the field. Importantly, systemic changes must occur to better represent the diversity of peoples and knowledges who have been historically systemically excluded in this field (and others). In this chapter, we discuss some of the remaining key challenges that conservation physiologists need to overcome to protect and effectively manage fish species around the globe in the coming decades, including those related to diversity, equity, inclusivity and justice. We make suggestions for overcoming these challenges, highlighting examples of how physiological knowledge has been used to conserve fishes and other taxa and providing key resources for understanding and addressing inequities in the field, which may serve as guidance for scientists and practitioners seeking to advance these goals. We finish with a list of priority actions needed to ensure that the field of Conservation Physiology remains relevant and successful in its quest to promote long-term sustainable and equitable conservation solutions.
... Thus, an understanding of individual responses does not necessarily give a full indication of the magnitude of the population-level response. In order to remove these 'black boxes', we must instead determine the intensity at which a response must occur in order to elicit population-level responses (Chown et al., 2010). This scalingup may reveal that negative individual impacts may not be severe enough to alter population levels; however, it may also reveal specific physiological processes that play a major driving role in population dynamics. ...
The field of conservation physiology strives to achieve conservation goals by revealing physiological mechanisms that drive population declines in the face of human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC) and has informed many successful conservation actions. However, many studies still struggle to explicitly link individual physiological measures to impacts across the biological hierarchy (to population and ecosystem levels) and instead rely on a 'black box' of assumptions to scale up results for conservation implications. Here, we highlight some examples of studies that were successful in scaling beyond the individual level, including two case studies of well-researched species, and using other studies we highlight challenges and future opportunities to increase the impact of research by scaling up the biological hierarchy. We first examine studies that use individual physiological measures to scale up to population-level impacts and discuss several emerging fields that have made significant steps toward addressing the gap between individual-based and demographic studies, such as macrophysiology and landscape physiology. Next, we examine how future studies can scale from population or species-level to community- and ecosystem-level impacts and discuss avenues of research that can lead to conservation implications at the ecosystem level, such as abiotic gradients and interspecific interactions. In the process, we review methods that researchers can use to make links across the biological hierarchy, including crossing disciplinary boundaries, collaboration and data sharing, spatial modelling and incorporating multiple markers (e.g. physiological, behavioural or demographic) into their research. We recommend future studies incorporating tools that consider the diversity of 'landscapes' experienced by animals at higher levels of the biological hierarchy, will make more effective contributions to conservation and management decisions.
... Recent changes in climate has led to rising the universal average of temperature by 0.6 C over the last century (Adams, 2010;Saunders, Montgomery, Easley, & Spencer, 2008;Walther et al., 2002) and there are mounting evidences showing the biological responses to climate change (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2013). It is anticipated that current climate changes increase temperature, change precipitation patterns, and increase intensity and frequency of serious weather events (Chown, Gaston, van Kleunen, & Clusella-Trullas, 2010;Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2013;Tataw et al., 2016). Investigations have documented that climate change can influence ecological systems at different level of organizations such as genetic frequencies, individuals, population, community and ecosystem (Root et al., 2003). ...
Seasonality and synchrony of parturition and postnatal growth in Rhinolophus ferrumequinum have been studied in two consecutive years representing a typical dry (2015) and an extremely wet climatic event (2016) in Kerend cave, western Iran. In 2015, first pup was born on 20 May and by 10 days 85% of neonates were born. In the wet year, first pup was born on 26 May and by 10 days 56% of neonates were born. Synchrony of birth as defined by the clustering of births assessed by circular statistics showed that the angular variance in 2015 ( S ² = 0.003) was significantly ( p < .05) lower than in 2016 ( S ² = 0.006). Multiple regression and generalized estimating equation indicate that the initial ( y ‐intercepts) forearm length and body mass were not significantly ( p > .05) different between the 2 years, but the tests for parallelism shows a significant decrease in growth rates of body mass and forearm length in the wet year ( p < .05). In 2016, juvenile bats began their first foraging flights at 24–28 days of age with higher but nonsignificant ( p > .05) wing loading (7.71 ± 0.48 N/m ² ) compared with 2015 (7.65 ± 0.57 N/m ² ). Similarly, aspect ratio of 1‐day old neonates and juvenile bats in 2015 and 2016 did not show any significant difference ( p > .05). Results of the present study suggest that R. ferrumequinum responded to prolonged precipitations and lower temperatures by delaying parturition, reducing birth synchrony and lowering postnatal growths.
... For example, a recent meta-analysis estimated that the current increase in temperatures has advanced the phenology of reproduction and migration in 62% of 678 species (Parmesan & Yohe 2003). The extent to which a species phenology may respond to climate warming throughout its range depends on spatial variation in the sensitivity of phenology to local climate conditions (Chevin et al. 2010, Chown et al. 2010). Yet, most shifts in phenology have been observed only within a single natural population. ...
... Moreover, the understanding of variation in phenology among populations is a unique opportunity to predict how populations should respond to climate change given the anticipated exposure of species to novel combinations of climatic and anthropogenic conditions (Travis, 2003;Baumann & Conover, 2010;Chown et al., 2010). ...
Substantial plastic variation in phenology in response to environmental heterogeneity through time in the same population has been uncovered in many species. However, our understanding of differences in reaction norms of phenology among populations from a given species remains limited.
As the plasticity of phenological traits is often influenced by local thermal conditions, we expect local temperature to generate variation in the reaction norms between populations.
Here, we explored temporal variation in parturition date across 11 populations of the common lizard ( Zootoca vivipara ) from four mountain chains as a function of air temperatures during mid‐gestation. We characterized among‐population variation to assess how local weather conditions (mean and variance of ambient temperatures during mid‐gestation) and habitat openness (an index of anthropogenic disturbance) influence the thermal reaction norms of the parturition date.
Our results provide evidence of interactive effects of anthropogenic disturbance and thermal conditions, with earlier parturition dates in warmer years on average especially in closed habitats.
Variation in the reaction norms for parturition date was correlated with mean local thermal conditions at a broad geographical scale. However, populations exposed to variable thermal conditions had flatter thermal reaction norms.
Assessing whether environmental heterogeneity drives differentiation among reaction norms is crucial to estimate the capacity of different populations to contend with projected climatic and anthropogenic challenges.
... A Darwinian framework for development: ecoevolutionary feedback is key Since the informational interpretation of genotypes was introduced in the literature [6,7], it has attracted the interest of researchers exploring a range of phenomena, including phenotypic polymorphisms (polyphenisms [39]), transgenerational epigenetic influences on development [9,40], mechanisms of ageing [17], sex-determination systems [20,41], early-life influences on health and disease [18], genetic variation in stress sensitivity [19], and ecological responses to anthropogenic environmental change [42]. To encourage wider application, we encapsulate its basic logic in a general informational (Bayesian) framework [23] for development in Figure 2. ...
The development of multicellular organisms involves a delicate interplay between genetic and environmental influences. It is often useful to think of developmental systems as integrating available sources of information about current conditions to produce organisms. Genes and inherited physiology provide cues, as does the state of the environment during development. The integration systems themselves are under genetic control and subject to Darwinian selection, so we expect them to evolve to produce organisms that fit well with current ecological (including social) conditions. We argue for the scientific value of this explicitly informational perspective by providing detailed examples of how it can elucidate taxonomically diverse phenomena. We also present a general framework for linking genetic and phenotypic variation from an informational perspective. This application of Darwinian logic at the organismal level can elucidate genetic influences on phenotypic variation in novel and counterintuitive ways.
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... Because stamina has been shown to affect territory acquisition, social displays, and survivorship (Miles 1994;Sinervo et al. 2000;Miles et al. 2001), rising temperatures will have fitness and ultimately population growth consequences (Huey 1991;Clusella-Trullas et al. 2011). Second, the shift in habitat characteristics may affect the suitability of current locations (Chown et al. 2010). We also found that male and female S. jarrovii differ in field-active T b s. ...
Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is often assumed to reflect the phenotypic consequences of differential selection operating on each sex. Species that exhibit SSD may also show intersexual differences in other traits, including field-active body temperatures, preferred temperatures, and locomotor performance. For these traits, differences may be correlated with differences in body size or reflect sex-specific trait optima. Male and female Yarrow's spiny lizards, Sceloporus jarrovii, in a population in southeastern Arizona exhibit a difference in body temperature that is unrelated to variation in body size. The observed sexual variation in body temperature may reflect divergence in thermal physiology between the sexes. To test this hypothesis, we measured the preferred body temperatures of male and female lizards when recently fed and fasted. We also estimated the thermal sensitivity of stamina at seven body temperatures. Variation in these traits provided an opportunity to determine whether body size or sex-specific variation unrelated to size shaped their thermal physiology. Female lizards, but not males, preferred a lower body temperature when fasted, and this pattern was unrelated to body size. Larger individuals exhibited greater stamina, but we detected no significant effect of sex on the shape or height of the thermal performance curves. The thermal preference of males and females in a thermal gradient exceeded the optimal temperature for performance in both sexes. Our findings suggest that differences in thermal physiology are both sex- and size-based and that peak performance at low body temperatures may be adaptive given the reproductive cycles of this viviparous species. We consider the implications of our findings for the persistence of S. jarrovii and other montane ectotherms in the face of climate warming.
... In contrast to this niche-based interpretation, the analysis of Humphries and Careau (187), based on simple scaling relationships, demonstrates that the latitudinal gradient of variation in endotherm energy expenditure can arise as a simple consequence of temperature dependent activity-thermoregulatory substitution, and does not require an explanation based on hypotheses concerning the variety of available metabolic niches. Such approaches, based on the scaling of physiological traits, have great potential to interface with the continuing documentation of variation in physiological traits over large geographical and temporal scales (Macrophysiology: 68,131), and can serve to provide a mechanistic underpinning to the understanding of macroecological patterns and to understand and predict the consequences of global change (65,67). ...
Life on earth spans a size range of around 21 orders of magnitude across species and can span a range of more than 6 orders of magnitude within species of animal. The effect of size on physiology is, therefore, enormous and is typically expressed by how physiological phenomena scale with mass(b). When b ≠ 1 a trait does not vary in direct proportion to mass and is said to scale allometrically. The study of allometric scaling goes back to at least the time of Galileo Galilei, and published scaling relationships are now available for hundreds of traits. Here, the methods of scaling analysis are reviewed, using examples for a range of traits with an emphasis on those related to metabolism in animals. Where necessary, new relationships have been generated from published data using modern phylogenetically informed techniques. During recent decades one of the most controversial scaling relationships has been that between metabolic rate and body mass and a number of explanations have been proposed for the scaling of this trait. Examples of these mechanistic explanations for metabolic scaling are reviewed, and suggestions made for comparing between them. Finally, the conceptual links between metabolic scaling and ecological patterns are examined, emphasizing the distinction between (1) the hypothesis that size- and temperature-dependent variation among species and individuals in metabolic rate influences ecological processes at levels of organization from individuals to the biosphere and (2) mechanistic explanations for metabolic rate that may explain the size- and temperature-dependence of this trait. © 2014 American Physiological Society. Compr Physiol 4:231-256, 2014.
... Chevin et al., 2010) in a landscape matrix (e.g. Chown et al., 2010). In addition, our results serve as a valuable addition to empirical tests of evolutionary predictions of trait plasticity and highlight the ecological and evolutionary importance of plastic physiological responses. ...
Physiological responses to transient conditions may result in costly responses with little fitness benefits, and therefore, a trade-off must exist between the speed of response and the duration of exposure to new conditions. Here, using the puparia of an important insect disease vector, Glossina pallidipes, we examine this potential trade-off using a novel combination of an experimental approach and a population dynamics model. Specifically, we explore and dissect the interactions between plastic physiological responses, treatment-duration and -intensity using an experimental approach. We then integrate these experimental results from organismal water-balance data and their plastic responses into a population dynamics model to examine the potential relative fitness effects of simulated transient weather conditions on population growth rates. The results show evidence for the predicted trade-off for plasticity of water loss rate (WLR) and the duration of new environmental conditions. When altered environmental conditions lasted for longer durations, physiological responses could match the new environmental conditions, and this resulted in a lower WLR and lower rates of population decline. At shorter time-scales however, a mismatch between acclimation duration and physiological responses was reflected by reduced overall population growth rates. This may indicate a potential fitness cost due to insufficient time for physiological adjustments to take place. The outcomes of this work therefore suggest plastic water balance responses have both costs and benefits, and these depend on the time-scale and magnitude of variation in environmental conditions. These results are significant for understanding the evolution of plastic physiological responses and changes in population abundance in the context of environmental variability.
... Natural spatial and temporal variability in the pH/pCO 2 conditions experienced by marine populations provide the potential for different levels of adaptation (genetic) and acclimatization (phenotypic) to decreased pH and elevated pCO 2 , emphasizing the importance of understanding physiological variation existing along natural environmental gradients (macrophysiology) in understanding global change impacts [29]. For instance, owing to natural variability in habitat temperature and pH, animals living in intertidal and estuarine environments may have some resilience to increased temperature and/or acidification [21,22,25,26,[30][31][32]. In these habitats, seawater pH fluctuates markedly in association with diurnal cycles of respiration and photosynthesis (figure 1). ...
The stunting effect of ocean acidification on development of calcifying invertebrate larvae has emerged as a significant effect of global change. We assessed the arm growth response of sea urchin echinoplutei, here used as a proxy of larval calcification, to increased seawater acidity/pCO2 and decreased carbonate mineral saturation in a global synthesis of data from 15 species. Phylogenetic relatedness did not influence the observed patterns. Regardless of habitat or latitude, ocean acidification impedes larval growth with a negative relationship between arm length and increased acidity/pCO2 and decreased carbonate mineral saturation. In multiple linear regression models incorporating these highly correlated parameters, pCO2 exerted the greatest influence on decreased arm growth in the global dataset and also in the data subsets for polar and subtidal species. Thus, reduced growth appears largely driven by organism hypercapnia. For tropical species, decreased carbonate mineral saturation was most important. No single parameter played a dominant role in arm size reduction in the temperate species. For intertidal species, the models were equivocal. Levels of acidification causing a significant (approx. 10-20+%) reduction in arm growth varied between species. In 13 species, reduction in length of arms and supporting skeletal rods was evident in larvae reared in near-future (pCO2 800+ µatm) conditions, whereas greater acidification (pCO2 1000+ µatm) reduced growth in all species. Although multi-stressor studies are few, when temperature is added to the stressor mix, near-future warming can reduce the negative effect of acidification on larval growth. Broadly speaking, responses of larvae from across world regions showed similar trends despite disparate phylogeny, environments and ecology. Larval success may be the bottleneck for species success with flow-on effects for sea urchin populations and marine ecosystems.
... The latter have been demonstrated by repeat population censuses and models of population responses (Pounds et al. 1999;Whitfield et al. 2007;Kearney et al. 2009;Sinervo et al. 2010) and by estimation and forecasts from macrophysiological studies (Deutsch et al. 2008;Huey et al. 2009;Dillon et al. 2010;Clusella-Trullas et al. 2011). The macrophysiological assessments have focussed on the characteristic features of thermal performance curves, which in ectotherms usually have an asymmetric, left-skewed form (Kingsolver and Huey 1998;Angilletta et al. 2006;Chown et al. 2010a). The typically linear relationship between temperature and log metabolic rate to the left of the thermal optimum, in conjunction with Communicated by I.D. Hume. ...
Thermal trait variation is of fundamental importance to forecasting the impacts of environmental change on lizard diversity. Here, we review the literature for patterns of variation in traits of upper and lower sub-lethal temperature limits, temperature preference and active body temperature in the field, in relation to space, time and phylogeny. Through time, we focus on the direction and magnitude of trait change within days, among seasons and as a consequence of acclimation. Across space, we examine altitudinal and latitudinal patterns, incorporating inter-specific analyses at regional and global scales. This synthesis highlights the consistency or lack thereof, of thermal trait responses, the relative magnitude of change among traits and several knowledge gaps identified in the relationships examined. We suggest that physiological information is becoming essential for forecasting environmental change sensitivity of lizards by providing estimates of plasticity and evolutionary scope.
