Simulated climate change increases larval mortality, alters phenology, and affects flight morphology of a dragonfly.

ABSTRACT: For organisms with complex life cycles, climate change can have both direct effects and indirect effects that are mediated through plastic responses to temperature and that carry over beyond the developmental environment. We examined multiple responses to environmental warming in a dragonfly, a species whose life history bridges aquatic and terrestrial environments. We tested larval survival under warming and whether warmer conditions can create carry-over effects between life history stages. Rearing dragonfly larvae in an experimental warming array to simulate increases in temperature, we contrasted the effects of the current thermal environment with temperatures +2.5°C and +5°C above ambient, temperatures predicted for 50 and 100 years in the future for the study region. Aquatic mesocosm

SUBMITTER: McCauley SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6290685 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature