Shrinking body size as an ecological response to climate change

Sheridan, Jennifer A.; Bickford, David

doi:10.1038/nclimate1259

Cited by 829 publications

(862 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…A comparison between the two datasets revealed significant differences in the animals' advertisement calls; at a given altitude, they decreased in duration and increased in pitch. These changes correspond to a shift of the frog's population to higher elevations, probably an adaptation to an increased ambient air temperature [12]. We confirmed the occurrence of such a temperature rise in Puerto Rico using hourly temperature data from four independent weather stations.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Climate change and frog calls: long-term correlations along a tropical altitudinal gradient

Narins

Meenderink

2014

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Temperature affects nearly all biological processes, including acoustic signal production and reception. Here, we report on advertisement calls of the Puerto Rican coqui frog (Eleutherodactylus coqui) that were recorded along an altitudinal gradient and compared these with similar recordings along the same altitudinal gradient obtained 23 years earlier. We found that over this period, at any given elevation, calls exhibited both significant increases in pitch and shortening of their duration. All of the observed differences are consistent with a shift to higher elevations for the population, a well-known strategy for adapting to a rise in ambient temperature. Using independent temperature data over the same time period, we confirm a significant increase in temperature, the magnitude of which closely predicts the observed changes in the frogs' calls. Physiological responses to long-term temperature rises include reduction in individual body size and concomitantly, population biomass. These can have potentially dire consequences, as coqui frogs form an integral component of the food web in the Puerto Rican rainforest.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Climate change and frog calls: long-term correlations along a tropical altitudinal gradient

Narins

Meenderink

2014

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…The first pattern disagrees with studies stating that more generalist consumers are good candidates to firstly move upwards [24,46,50]. Actually, specialists are considered particularly vulnerable to extinction as a result of environmental change [50][51][52][53]. The lack of inequality found can be a consequence of living in an extreme and extremely fluctuating habitat, with species forcedly adapted to a relatively highly diverse diet.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Climate change impacts on body size and food web structure on mountain ecosystems

Lurgi

López

Montoya

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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The current distribution of climatic conditions will be rearranged on the globe. To survive, species will have to keep pace with climates as they move. Mountains are among the most affected regions owing to both climate and land-use change. Here, we explore the effects of climate change in the vertebrate food web of the Pyrenees. We investigate elevation range expansions between two time-periods illustrative of warming conditions, to assess: (i) the taxonomic composition of range expanders; (ii) changes in food web properties such as the distribution of links per species and community size-structure; and (iii) what are the specific traits of range expanders that set them apart from the other species in the community-in particular, body mass, diet generalism, vulnerability and trophic position within the food web. We found an upward expansion of species at all elevations, which was not even for all taxonomic groups and trophic positions. At low and intermediate elevations, predator : prey mass ratios were significantly reduced. Expanders were larger, had fewer predators and were, in general, more specialists. Our study shows that elevation range expansions as climate warms have important and predictable impacts on the structure and size distribution of food webs across space.

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“…Nonetheless, ocean acidification-driven reductions in skeletogenesis are likely to have important ecological and functional implications. Ecologically, if reduced skeletogenesis translates into an overall decrease in larval size, energy transfer across trophic levels may be perturbed as smaller larvae will support fewer or smaller marine consumers [43]. In addition smaller larvae have been shown to be more vulnerable to predation, potentially influencing predatorprey dynamics in marine food webs [44].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature and CO₂additively regulate physiology, morphology and genomic responses of larval sea urchins,Strongylocentrotus purpuratus

et al. 2013

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Ocean warming and ocean acidification, both consequences of anthropogenic production of CO 2 , will combine to influence the physiological performance of many species in the marine environment. In this study, we used an integrative approach to forecast the impact of future ocean conditions on larval purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) from the northeast Pacific Ocean. In laboratory experiments that simulated ocean warming and ocean acidification, we examined larval development, skeletal growth, metabolism and patterns of gene expression using an orthogonal comparison of two temperature (138C and 188C) and pCO 2 (400 and 1100 matm) conditions. Simultaneous exposure to increased temperature and pCO 2 significantly reduced larval metabolism and triggered a widespread downregulation of histone encoding genes. pCO 2 but not temperature impaired skeletal growth and reduced the expression of a major spicule matrix protein, suggesting that skeletal growth will not be further inhibited by ocean warming. Importantly, shifts in skeletal growth were not associated with developmental delay. Collectively, our results indicate that global change variables will have additive effects that exceed thresholds for optimized physiological performance in this keystone marine species.

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Shrinking body size as an ecological response to climate change

Cited by 829 publications

References 81 publications

Climate change and frog calls: long-term correlations along a tropical altitudinal gradient

Climate change and frog calls: long-term correlations along a tropical altitudinal gradient

Climate change impacts on body size and food web structure on mountain ecosystems

Temperature and CO₂additively regulate physiology, morphology and genomic responses of larval sea urchins,Strongylocentrotus purpuratus

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Shrinking body size as an ecological response to climate change

Cited by 829 publications

References 81 publications

Climate change and frog calls: long-term correlations along a tropical altitudinal gradient

Climate change and frog calls: long-term correlations along a tropical altitudinal gradient

Climate change impacts on body size and food web structure on mountain ecosystems

Temperature and CO2additively regulate physiology, morphology and genomic responses of larval sea urchins,Strongylocentrotus purpuratus

Contact Info

Product

Resources

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Temperature and CO₂additively regulate physiology, morphology and genomic responses of larval sea urchins,Strongylocentrotus purpuratus