A paper came out this week on climate change and the potential ability of diving beetles to deal with it:
Thermal tolerance, acclimatory capacity and vulnerability to global climate change. Piero Calosi, David T. Bilton & John I. Spicer. Biology Letters. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0408
“We demonstrate a positive relationship between upper thermal tolerance and its acclimatory ability in a well-defined clade of closely related European diving beetles. We predict that species with the lowest tolerance to high temperatures will be most at risk from the adverse effects of future warming, since they have both low absolute thermal tolerance and poor acclimatory ability. Upper thermal tolerance is also positively related to species’ geographical range size, meaning that species most at risk are already the most geographically restricted ones, being endemic to Mediterranean mountain systems.”
Rather depressing. I’d thought about how warming might lead to shallower vernal pools; but I hadn’t really thought about how less water would probably be warmer water.
Sigh.
Bug Gwen 