Global variation in thermal tolerances and vulnerability of endotherms to climate change.

ABSTRACT: The relationships among species' physiological capacities and the geographical variation of ambient climate are of key importance to understanding the distribution of life on the Earth. Furthermore, predictions of how species will respond to climate change will profit from the explicit consideration of their physiological tolerances. The climatic variability hypothesis, which predicts that climatic tolerances are broader in more variable climates, provides an analytical framework for studying these relationships between physiology and biogeography. However, direct empirical support for the hypothesis is mostly lacking for endotherms, and few studies have tried to integrate physiological data into assessments of species' climatic vulnerability at the global scale. Here, we test the climatic

SUBMITTER: Khaliq I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4100521 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature