Altitudinal variation in metabolic parameters of a small Afrotropical bird

Physiologically vulnerable or resilient? Tropical birds, global warming, and redistributions

“…Additionally, more intra‐ and interspecific studies of species that inhabit environmental gradients (e.g., T a , precipitation, aridity) could allow the identification of populations and species more vulnerable to local warming as well as physiological features which could make them more resilient in different parts of their distribution (i.e., phenotypic plasticity) (Cavieres & Sabat, 2008 ; Tieleman et al, 2002 ). Birds in general can experience short‐ and long‐term seasonal variation in BMR and EWL (McKechnie et al, 2007 ; Soobramoney et al, 2003 ; Thompson & Downs, 2017 ; Tieleman et al, 2003 ) but also, and most importantly, cooling capacity and heat tolerance limits can vary in proportion to the severity of variation in environmental conditions, such as T a and humidity (Freeman et al, 2022 ; Noakes et al, 2016 ). For instance, some lark species (Alaudidae) responded to increasing aridity along their distributions with lower phylogeny‐independent rates of EWL, suggestive of a plastic response among species (Tieleman et al, 2002 ).…”