Journal
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
Volume 24, Issue 5, Pages 1884-1893Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14088
Keywords
accelerometer; biogeography; climate change; fundamental niche; overall dynamic body acceleration; physiological ecology; realized niche; species distribution modelling; tagging; thermal performance curve
Funding
- Australian Research Council [LP120100592]
- Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland
- New South Wales Recreational Fishing Trust
- Mohammed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund
- Fisheries Queensland
- F.G. Wilson Pty. Ltd
- Winifred Violet Scott Foundation
- Cascade COFUND [PCOFUND-GA-2012-600181]
- RipCom Telecommunications
- New South Wales Game Fishing Association
- Elanora State School
- Discovery Channel
- Bio-Logging Science of the University of Tokyo
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [17H00776] Funding Source: KAKEN
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The redistribution of species has emerged as one of the most pervasive impacts of anthropogenic climate warming, and presents many societal challenges. Understanding how temperature regulates species distributions is particularly important for mobile marine fauna such as sharks given their seemingly rapid responses to warming, and the socio-political implications of human encounters with some dangerous species. The predictability of species distributions can potentially be improved by accounting for temperature's influence on performance, an elusive relationship for most large animals. We combined multi-decadal catch data and bio-logging to show that coastal abundance and swimming performance of tiger sharks Galeocerdo cuvier are both highest at similar to 22 degrees C, suggesting thermal constraints on performance may regulate this species' distribution. Tiger sharks are responsible for a large proportion of shark bites on humans, and a focus of controversial control measures in several countries. The combination of distribution and performance data moves towards a mechanistic understanding of tiger shark's thermal niche, and delivers a simple yet powerful indicator for predicting the location and timing of their occurrences throughout coastlines. For example, tiger sharks are mostly caught at Australia's popular New South Wales beaches (i.e. near Sydney) in the warmest months, but our data suggest similar abundances will occur in winter and summer if annual sea surface temperatures increase by a further 1-2 degrees C.
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