Parenting in a warming world: thermoregulatory responses to heat stress in an endangered seabird.

ABSTRACT: The frequency of extreme weather events, including heat waves, is increasing with climate change. The thermoregulatory demands resulting from hotter weather can have catastrophic impacts on animals, leading to mass mortalities. Although less dramatic, animals also experience physiological costs below, but approaching, critical temperature thresholds. These costs may be particularly constraining during reproduction, when parents must balance thermoregulation against breeding activities. Such challenges should be acute among seabirds, which often nest in locations exposed to high solar radiation and predation risk. The globally endangered bank cormorant Phalacrocorax neglectus breeds in southern Africa in the winter, giving little scope for poleward or phenological shifts in the face of incr

SUBMITTER: Cook TR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6970236 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature