symonds-australiansongbird-2019.pdf (799.93 kB)
Australian songbird body size tracks climate variation: 82 species over 50 years
journal contribution
posted on 2019-01-01, 00:00 authored by Janet L Gardner, Tatsuya Amano, Anne Peters, William J Sutherland, Brendan Mackey, Leo Joseph, John Stein, Karen Ikin, Roellen Little, Jesse Smith, Matthew SymondsMatthew SymondsThe observed variation in the body size responses of endotherms to climate change may be explained by two hypotheses: the size increases with climate variability (the starvation resistance hypothesis) and the size shrinks as mean temperatures rise (the heat exchange hypothesis). Across 82 Australian passerine species over 50 years, shrinking was associated with annual mean temperature rise exceeding 0.012°C driven by rising winter temperatures for arid and temperate zone species. We propose the warming winters hypothesis to explain this response. However, where average summer temperatures exceeded 34°C, species experiencing annual rise over 0.0116°C tended towards increasing size. Results suggest a broad-scale physiological response to changing climate, with size trends probably reflecting the relative strength of selection pressures across a climatic regime. Critically, a given amount of temperature change will have varying effects on phenotype depending on the season in which it occurs, masking the generality of size patterns associated with temperature change. Rather than phenotypic plasticity, and assuming body size is heritable, results suggest selective loss or gain of particular phenotypes could generate evolutionary change but may be difficult to detect with current warming rates.
History
Journal
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: biological sciencesVolume
286Issue
1916Article number
20192258Pagination
1 - 10Publisher
The Royal SocietyLocation
London, Eng.Publisher DOI
Link to full text
ISSN
0962-8452eISSN
1471-2954Language
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2019, The Author(s)Usage metrics
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Science & TechnologyLife Sciences & BiomedicineBiologyEcologyEvolutionary BiologyLife Sciences & Biomedicine - Other TopicsEnvironmental Sciences & Ecologyclimate changebody sizeBergmann's Rulemetabolismstarvation riskheat exchangeBERGMANNS RULEWARMING WORLDHEATTHERMOREGULATIONPASSERINESINCREASESRESPONSESPATTERNSADAPTATIONEVOLUTION
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