Beyond thermal limits: comprehensive metrics of performance identify key axes of thermal adaptation in ants

Penick, Clint A.; Diamond, Sarah E.; Sanders, Nathan J.; Dunn, Robert R.

doi:10.1111/1365-2435.12818

Cited by 66 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…On the one hand, thermal performance traits of workers shape ant ecology and distributions at local (Cerdá, Retana, & Cros, ; Kaspari et al, ; Talbot, ) and biogeographic scales (Arnan & Blüthgen, ; Arnan, Blüthgen, Molowny‐Horas, & Retana, ; Diamond et al, ). However, colony‐level performance is also governed by a capacity for thermoregulation (Baudier & O'Donnell, ) since colonies can use nest architecture to thermally manipulate larval development rates (Penick & Tschinkel, ) and shift colony growth rates (Penick, Diamond, Sanders, & Dunn, ). The buffering effects of colony‐level thermoregulation may be especially important to understanding our results, since high‐elevation habitats can have high diurnal variance in air temperatures that may select against high MR Q 10 values in ectotherms according to Jensen's inequality (Ruel & Ayres, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for locally adaptive metabolic rates among ant populations along an elevational gradient

Shik

Arnán

Oms

et al. 2019

Journal of Animal Ecology

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As global temperatures rise, the mechanistic links between temperature, physiology and behaviour will increasingly define predictions of ecological change. However, for many taxa, we currently lack consensus about how thermal performance traits vary within and across populations, and whether and how locally adaptive trait plasticity can buffer warming effects. The metabolic cold adaptation hypothesis posits that cold environments (e.g. high elevations and latitudes) select for high metabolic rates (MR), even after controlling for body size differences, and that this enables high activity levels when an organism is near its cold lower thermal limits. Steep MR reaction norms are further predicted at cold temperatures to enable rapid behavioural activation with rising temperatures needed to exploit brief thermal windows suitable for performing eco‐evolutionary tasks. We tested these predictions by performing common garden experiments comparing thermal reaction norms of MR (from 15 to 32°C) and behaviour (from 10 to 40°C) across populations of the ant Aphaenogaster iberica sampled from a 2 km elevation gradient in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of southern Spain. As predicted, high‐elevation ants had higher MR and steeper MR‐temperature reaction norms. However, higher rates of energy use did not yield the predicted benefits of steeper activity‐level reaction norms. The evidence for locally adaptive metabolic physiology only became apparent at intermediate temperatures, highlighting the importance of testing thermal performance hypotheses across thermal gradients, rather than focusing only on performance at thermal limits (i.e. critical thermal values). The partial support for the metabolic cold adaptation hypothesis highlights that while organisms likely show a wealth of unexplored metabolic temperature plasticity, the physiological mechanisms and eco‐evolutionary trade‐offs underlying such local adaptation remain obscure.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for locally adaptive metabolic rates among ant populations along an elevational gradient

Shik

Arnán

Oms

et al. 2019

Journal of Animal Ecology

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“…a), perhaps explaining the increased activity of the ant Crematogaster lineolata —which made up >50% of pitfall captures and has a relatively high thermal tolerance (Penick et al. )—on plots with less plant biomass.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Surface temperature and solar radiation were reduced only on plots with increased plant biomass (Fig. 1a), perhaps explaining the increased activity of the ant Crematogaster lineolata-which made up >50% of pitfall captures and has a relatively high thermal tolerance (Penick et al 2017)-on plots with less plant biomass.…”

Section: Arthropod Abundance and Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Plants regulate grassland arthropod communities through biomass, quality, and habitat heterogeneity

Prather

Kaspari

2019

Ecosphere

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Habitat heterogeneity affects both biotic and abiotic factors important in determining arthropod community composition. In a sandy, mixed‐grass prairie in the southern Great Plains, we used clipping and NPK fertilization to manipulate plant biomass, habitat heterogeneity, and plant quality to quantify their relative effects on the abundance and diversity of its arthropod community. Both clipping and fertilization treatments affected plant biomass and microclimate, including light availability, temperature, and humidity. By decreasing plant biomass, clipping simplified habitat structure and resulted in reduced arthropod abundance and diversity and increased arthropod activity. This reduction appeared to be mediated by fertilizer addition, which increased total plot carbon, plant biomass, and habitat volume, resulting in lower average surface temperature and higher average humidity. By itself, increasing plant biomass through fertilization increased arthropod abundance, activity, and richness. In addition, we show that changing microclimate and plant biomass promoted shifts in arthropod community composition. These results demonstrate the role of habitat heterogeneity and plant quality in structuring arthropod community composition, specifically by regulating microclimate and providing habitat space.

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“…Soil temperature also appeared to be the most important factor driving ant discovery of, and recruitment to, food (see also Dunn et al 2007). One confounding factor, however, that may shape the foraging behavior of ants is colony size as both the number of workers produced (Markin 1970, Tschinkel 1993 and the speed at which broods develop (Porter 1988, Penick et al 2017) changes with temperature throughout the year. In future studies, disentangling how colony size contributes to the nutritional demands of ant colonies across temporal changes in temperature will undoubtedly result in new and exciting insights.…”

Section: Performance Integrates Over Different Measures Of Environmenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using metabolic and thermal ecology to predict temperature dependent ecosystem activity: a test with prairie ants

Prather

Roeder

Sanders

et al. 2018

Ecology

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As ecosystems warm, ectotherm consumer activity should also change. Here we use principles from metabolic and thermal ecology to explore how seasonal and diel temperature change shapes a prairie ant community's foraging rate and its demand for two fundamental resources: salt and sugar. From April through October 2016 we ran transects of vials filled with solutions of 0.5% NaCl and 1% sucrose. We first confirm a basic prediction rarely tested: the discovery rate of both food resources accelerated with soil temperature, but this increase was typically capped at midday due to extreme surface temperatures. We then tested the novel prediction that sodium demand accelerates with temperature, premised on a key thermal difference between sugar and sodium: sugar is stored in cells, while salt is pumped out of cells proportional to metabolic rate, and hence temperature. We found strong support for the resulting prediction that recruitment to NaCl baits accelerates with temperature more steeply than recruitment to 1% sucrose baits. A follow up experiment in 2017 verified that temperature-dependent recruitment to sucrose concentrations of 20% (mimicking rich extrafloral nectaries), while noisy, was still only half as temperature dependent as recruitment recorded for 0.5% NaCl. These results demonstrate how ecosystem warming accelerates then curtails the work done by a community of ectotherms, and how the demand and use of fundamental nutrients can be differentially temperature dependent.

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Beyond thermal limits: comprehensive metrics of performance identify key axes of thermal adaptation in ants

Cited by 66 publications

References 67 publications

Evidence for locally adaptive metabolic rates among ant populations along an elevational gradient

Evidence for locally adaptive metabolic rates among ant populations along an elevational gradient

Plants regulate grassland arthropod communities through biomass, quality, and habitat heterogeneity

Using metabolic and thermal ecology to predict temperature dependent ecosystem activity: a test with prairie ants

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