Seasonal variation in thermal tolerance and hypoxia tolerance of a threatened minnow and a non-imperilled congener: a cautionary tale for surrogate species in conservation.

ABSTRACT: Freshwater organisms face multiple threats to their ecosystems, including warming associated with climate change and low dissolved oxygen (environmental hypoxia), which are both increasing in frequency and extent in freshwater systems. Understanding tolerance thresholds for these environmental stressors as well as the plasticity of responses is the key for informing the conservation of imperilled species. Direct measurement of imperilled species can be difficult, and the use of surrogate (non-imperilled but closely related) species has been proposed as a remedy, but the degree to which surrogate data are representative of the imperilled species has not been widely validated. In this study, we measured physiological performance of two species: one federally listed as Threatened in Canada (P

SUBMITTER: Reemeyer JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11482009 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature