Metabolic plasticity can amplify ecosystem responses to global warming.

ABSTRACT: Organisms have the capacity to alter their physiological response to warming through acclimation or adaptation, but the consequence of this metabolic plasticity for energy flow through food webs is currently unknown, and a generalisable framework does not exist for modelling its ecosystem-level effects. Here, using temperature-controlled experiments on stream invertebrates from a natural thermal gradient, we show that the ability of organisms to raise their metabolic rate following chronic exposure to warming decreases with increasing body size. Chronic exposure to higher temperatures also increases the acute thermal sensitivity of whole-organismal metabolic rate, independent of body size. A mathematical model parameterised with these findings shows that metabolic plasticity could account

SUBMITTER: Kordas RL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9021271 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature