Microclimatic changes caused by plant invasions and warming: uncovering thermal costs and benefits to a tortoise.

ABSTRACT: Non-native plant invasions and climate warming alter the microclimatic conditions that organisms experience in their habitats, with potential implications for the fitness of native faunal species, particularly ectotherms. Predictions for species conservation increasingly use microclimate data at fine spatial scales relevant to organisms, but they typically overlook the modulating effect that vegetation changes have on the microclimates available in the habitat. Here we quantify the microclimatic changes imposed by invasive trees and simultaneous warming on native habitats and assess the resulting thermal benefits and costs to a small tortoise species (Homopus areolatus) from an organismal perspective and throughout its life cycle. We logged operative temperature above- and belowgrou

SUBMITTER: Garcia RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11884760 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature