Large diurnal temperature range increases bird sensitivity to climate change.

ABSTRACT: Climate variability is changing on multiple temporal scales, and little is known of the consequences of increases in short-term variability, particularly in endotherms. Using mortality data with high temporal resolution of zebra finches living in large outdoor aviaries (5 years, 359.220 bird-days), we show that mortality rate increases almost two-fold per 1°C increase in diurnal temperature range (DTR). Interestingly, the DTR effect differed between two groups with low versus high experimentally manipulated foraging costs, reflecting a typical laboratory 'easy' foraging environment and a 'hard' semi-natural environment respectively. DTR increased mortality on days with low minimum temperature in the easy foraging environment, but on days with high minimum temperature in the semi-natural en

SUBMITTER: Briga M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4643245 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature