Degrees of disruption: projected temperature increase has catastrophic consequences for reproduction in a tropical ectotherm
Abstract
Although climate change models predict relatively modest increases in temperature in the tropics by the end of the century, recent analyses identify tropical ectotherms as the organisms most at risk from climate warming. Because metabolic rate in ectotherms increases exponentially with temperature, even a small rise in temperature poses a physiological threat to tropical ectotherms inhabiting an already hot environment. If correct, the metabolic theory of climate warming has profound implications for global biodiversity, since tropical insects and arachnids constitute the vast majority of animal species. Predicting how climate change will translate into fitness consequences for tropical arthropods requires an understanding of the effects of temperature increase on the entire life history of the species. Here, in a comprehensive case study of the fitness consequences of the projected temperature increase for the tropics, we conducted a split‐brood experiment on the neotropical pseudoscorpion, Cordylochernes scorpioides, in which 792 offspring from 33 females were randomly assigned at birth to control‐ and high‐temperature treatments for rearing through the adult stage. The diurnally varying, control treatment temperature was determined from long‐term, average daily temperature minima and maxima in the pseudoscorpion's native habitat. In the high temperature treatment, increasing temperature by the 3.5 °C predicted for the tropics significantly reduced survival and accelerated development at the cost of reduced adult size and a dramatic decrease in level of sexual dimorphism. The most striking effects, however, involved reproductive traits. Reared at high temperature, males produced 45% as many sperm as control males, and females failed to reproduce. Sequencing of the mitochondrial ND 2 gene revealed two highly divergent haplogroups that differed substantially in developmental rate and survivorship but not in reproductive response to high temperature. Our findings suggest that reproduction may be the A chilles’ heel of tropical ectotherms, as climate warming subjects them to an increasingly adverse thermal environment.
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The analyses are in keeping with predictions of Deutsch et al. that tropical insects should be especially vulnerable to climate warming.
“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 [50]
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Climate-driven declines in arthropod abundance restructure a rainforest food web
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- Authors
- Zeh, J. A., Bonilla, M. M., Su, E. J., Padua, M. V., Anderson, R. V., Kaur, D., Yang, D., & Zeh, D. W.
- Affiliations
- University of Nevada, Reno (US)
- Department of Biology and Program in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology University of Nevada Reno NV 89557 USA
- Corresponding author
- Zeh, Jeanne A.
- Venue
- Global Change Biology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2012-02-16
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1833-1842
- ISSN
- 1354-1013 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2486
- OpenAlex
- W2075104431
- Cited by
- 57
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 5.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Global Change Biology (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Geographic Society
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Physiological and biochemical adaptations
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Keywords
- global warming, Pseudoscorpiones, reproductive failure, spermatogenesis, developmental rate, adult body size, sexual dimorphism, thermal sensitivity, metabolic rate, Neotropical insects
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