The DOI matches its Crossref record; 52 of the 52 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Who likes it hot? A global analysis of the climatic, ecological, and evolutionary determinants of warming tolerance in ants
Abstract
Effects of climate warming on wild populations of organisms are expected to be greatest at higher latitudes, paralleling greater anticipated increases in temperature in these regions. Yet, these expectations assume that populations in different regions are equally susceptible to the effects of warming. This is unlikely to be the case. Here, we develop a series of predictive models for physiological thermal tolerances in ants based on current and future climates. We found that tropical ants have lower warming tolerances, a metric of susceptibility to climate warming, than temperate ants despite greater increases in temperature at higher latitudes. Using climatic, ecological and phylogenetic data, we refine our predictions of which ants (across all regions) were most susceptible to climate warming. We found that ants occupying warmer and more mesic forested habitats at lower elevations are the most physiologically susceptible to deleterious effects of climate warming. Phylogenetic history was also a strong indicator of physiological susceptibility. In short, we find that ants that live in the canopies of hot, tropical forest are the most at risk, globally, from climate warming. Unfortunately this is where many, perhaps most, ant and other species on Earth live.
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“Fourth, our analyses are in keeping with predictions of Deutsch et al. (5) that tropical insects should be especially vulnerable to climate warming, adding to field and laboratory studies over the past several years that have consistently supported the predicted sensitivity (8, 48–53).”
From Climate-driven declines in arthropod abundance restructure a rainforest food web (2018) · cites this paper as [52]
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“…thermal tolerance in ants comes from interspecific comparisons, among contrasting life histories (Garcia-Robledo, Chuquillanqui, Kuprewicz, & Escobar-Sarria, 2018), habitats (Kaspari, Clay, Lucas, Yanoviak, & Kay, 2015), and evolutionary histories (Diamond & Chick, 2018; Diamond et al., 2012).”
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“…has been shown that most trait variation across ant species (i.e., at the interspecific level) can be found within local communities, which is commonly associated with microhabitat and microclimate heterogeneity (Diamond et al. 2012; Kaspari et al. 2015; Buxton et al. 2021; Nascimento et al. 2022).”
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“Previous studies have indicated that ants living in the canopy of lowland tropical rainforests are those at most risk from global warming (Câmara et al., 2024; Diamond, Sorger, et al., 2012; Leahy et al., 2022).”
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Traits as units for prediction in ecological responses to climate change
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Metadata
- Authors
- Diamond, S. E., Sorger, D. M., Hulcr, J., Pelini, S. L., Toro, I. D., Hirsch, C., Oberg, E., & Dunn, R. R.
- Affiliations
- North Carolina State University (US)
- Department of Biology North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695‐7617 USA
- Harvard University (US)
- University of Massachusetts Amherst (US)
- Texas A&M University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Diamond, Sarah E.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Global Change Biology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2011-10-09
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 448-456
- ISSN
- 1354-1013 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2486
- OpenAlex
- W2141603736
- Cited by
- 259
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 11.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Global Change Biology (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Physiological and biochemical adaptations
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Insect Science › Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecological Modeling › Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Keywords
- ants, warming tolerance, heat tolerance, global warming, latitudinal gradient, tropical forest canopy, habitat moisture, altitude, phylogeny, climate change vulnerability
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