Why tropical forest lizards are vulnerable to climate warming
Why tropical forest lizards are vulnerable to climate warming
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2008.1957
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发表时间：
2009-06-07
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Garland, Theodore, Jr.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Huey, Raymond B.;Deutsch, Curtis A.;Garland, Theodore, Jr.
预计气候变暖对生物的影响将随着纬度的增加而增加，与变暖的程度同步增加。然而，影响的程度不仅取决于变暖的程度，还取决于面临风险的物种数量、它们对变暖的生理敏感性以及它们对行为和生理补偿的选择。蜥蜴对于评估变暖风险很有用，因为它们的热生物学已得到充分研究。我们对来自不同纬度的昼行蜥蜴进行了宏观生理学分析，并对波多黎各安乐蜥和球指龙进行了重点物种分析。尽管热带低地蜥蜴全年生活在温暖的环境中，但宏观生理学分析表明，一些热带谱系（生活在森林中的热适形蜥蜴）在低体温下很活跃，并且不能忍受温暖的温度。焦点物种分析表明，几十年前的研究表明，一些热带森林蜥蜴在夏季已经经历了体温压力。模拟表明，变暖不仅会进一步抑制它们在夏季的生理表现，还会使适应温暖的开放栖息地竞争者和捕食者入侵森林。森林蜥蜴是热带生态系统的关键组成部分，但似乎很容易受到气候变暖带来的连锁生理和生态影响，尽管热带变暖的速度可能相对较低。
Biological impacts of climate warming are predicted to increase with latitude, paralleling increases in warming. However, the magnitude of impacts depends not only on the degree of warming but also on the number of species at risk, their physiological sensitivity to warming and their options for behavioural and physiological compensation. Lizards are useful for evaluating risks of warming because their thermal biology is well studied. We conducted macrophysiological analyses of diurnal lizards from diverse latitudes plus focal species analyses of Puerto Rican Anolis and Sphaerodactyus. Although tropical lowland lizards live in environments that are warm all year, macrophysiological analyses indicate that some tropical lineages (thermoconformers that live in forests) are active at low body temperature and are intolerant of warm temperatures. Focal species analyses show that some tropical forest lizards were already experiencing stressful body temperatures in summer when studied several decades ago. Simulations suggest that warming will not only further depress their physiological performance in summer, but will also enable warm-adapted, open-habitat competitors and predators to invade forests. Forest lizards are key components of tropical ecosystems, but appear vulnerable to the cascading physiological and ecological effects of climate warming, even though rates of tropical warming may be relatively low.