Seasonal plasticity of thermal tolerance in ants
Seasonal plasticity of thermal tolerance in ants
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DOI：
10.1002/ecy.3051
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发表时间：
2020-04-30
期刊：
影响因子：
4.8
通讯作者：
Kaspari, Michael
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Bujan, Jelena;Roeder, Karl A.;Kaspari, Michael
对昆虫耐热性的分析通常表明，这种特征相对不变，这导致在预测变暖世界中物种未来分布的模型中使用固定的热最大值。季节性环境使种群暴露于广泛的年度温度变化。为了评估简化假设不变的热最大值，我们量化了26个蚂蚁物种在三个季节的耐热性变化两倍的平均温度。我们的最终目标是测试耐热性跟踪月温度的假设。蚂蚁觅食测试在夏末，在9月，有较高的平均临界热最大值（CTmax）相比，在3月和12月。五分之四的季节性通才，在所有三个焦点月积极觅食的物种，平均而言，9月份的CTmax高出6摄氏度。入侵的红火蚁Solenopsis invicta属于热塑性物种，但本地热专家仍然保持比S. invicta我们的研究表明，耐热性可以是可塑性的，在研究物种水平的适应性时应该考虑这一点。此外，热特性的可塑性虽然可能代价高昂，但也可能产生相对于具有固定特性的物种的竞争优势，并促进对气候变化的适应能力。
Analyses of heat tolerance in insects often suggest that this trait is relatively invariant, leading to the use of fixed thermal maxima in models predicting future distribution of species in a warming world. Seasonal environments expose populations to a wide annual temperature variation. To evaluate the simplifying assumption of invariant thermal maxima, we quantified heat tolerance of 26 ant species across three seasons that vary two-fold in mean temperature. Our ultimate goal was to test the hypothesis that heat tolerance tracks monthly temperature. Ant foragers tested at the end of the summer, in September, had higher average critical thermal maximum (CTmax) compared to those in March and December. Four out of five seasonal generalists, species actively foraging in all three focal months, had, on average, 6 degrees C higher CTmax in September. The invasive fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, was among the thermally plastic species, but the native thermal specialists still maintained higher CTmax than S. invicta. Our study shows that heat tolerance can be plastic, and this should be considered when examining species-level adaptations. Moreover, the plasticity of thermal traits, while potentially costly, may also generate a competitive advantage over species with fixed traits and promote resilience to climate change.