City limits: Heat tolerance is influenced by body size and hydration state in an urban ant community.

ABSTRACT: Cities are rapidly expanding, and global warming is intensified in urban environments due to the urban heat island effect. Therefore, urban animals may be particularly susceptible to warming associated with ongoing climate change. We used a comparative and manipulative approach to test three related hypotheses about the determinants of heat tolerance or critical thermal maximum (CT _max) in urban ants-specifically, that (a) body size, (b) hydration status, and (c) chosen microenvironments influence CT _max. We further tested a fourth hypothesis that native species are particularly physiologically vulnerable in urban environments. We manipulated water access and determined CT _max for 11 species common to cities in California's Central Vall

SUBMITTER: Johnson DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7297767 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature