Limited tolerance by insects to high temperatures across tropical elevational gradients and the implications of global warming for extinction.

ABSTRACT: The critical thermal maximum (CTmax), the temperature at which motor control is lost in animals, has the potential to determine if species will tolerate global warming. For insects, tolerance to high temperatures decreases with latitude, suggesting that similar patterns may exist along elevational gradients as well. This study explored how CTmax varies among species and populations of a group of diverse tropical insect herbivores, the rolled-leaf beetles, across both broad and narrow elevational gradients. Data from 6,948 field observations and 8,700 museum specimens were used to map the elevational distributions of rolled-leaf beetles on two mountains in Costa Rica. CTmax was determined for 1,252 individual beetles representing all populations across the gradients. Initial morphological i

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Robledo C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4725502 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature