Journal
ECOLOGY
Volume 95, Issue 8, Pages 2134-2143Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1890/13-1703.1
Keywords
dung beetles; geographic range size; global warming; latitudinal gradients; Nicrophorus; Scarabaeinae; thermal physiology; thermotolerance; tropics
Categories
Funding
- NSF (Graduate Research Fellowship, IGERT DEB) [0333408]
- NSF (Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Project DEB) [0853825]
- UW Biology Department
- American Philosophical Society, Sigma Xi
- American Museum of Natural History
- Division Of Graduate Education
- Direct For Education and Human Resources [0333408] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Div Of Biological Infrastructure
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1306883] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Office Of Internatl Science &Engineering
- Office Of The Director [0853825] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Environmental temperature variation can influence physiology, biogeography, and life history, with large consequences for ecology, evolution, and the impacts of climate change. Based on the seasonality hypothesis, greater annual temperature variation at high latitudes should result in greater thermal tolerance and, consequently, larger elevational ranges in temperate compared to tropical species. Despite the mechanistic nature of this hypothesis, most research has used latitude as a proxy for seasonality, failing to directly examine the impact of temperature variation on physiology and range size. We used phylogenetically matched beetles from locations spanning 60 degrees of latitude to explore links between seasonality, physiology and elevational range. Thermal tolerance increased with seasonality across all beetle groups, but realized seasonality (temperature variation restricted to the months species are active) was a better predictor of thermal tolerance than was annual seasonality. Additionally, beetles with greater thermal tolerance had larger elevational ranges. Our results support a mechanistic framework linking variation in realized temperature to physiology and distributions.
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