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First published online May 24, 2004
Journal of Experimental Biology 207, 2361-2370 (2004)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2004
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01023

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Upper thermal tolerance and oxygen limitation in terrestrial arthropods

C. Jaco Klok, Brent J. Sinclair and Steven L. Chown^*

Spatial, Physiological and Conservation Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: slchown{at}sun.ac.za)

Accepted 8 April 2004

The hypothesis of oxygen limitation of thermal tolerance proposes that critical temperatures are set by a transition to anaerobic metabolism, and that upper and lower tolerances are therefore coupled. Moreover, this hypothesis has been dubbed a unifying general principle and extended from marine to terrestrial ectotherms. By contrast, in insects the upper and lower limits are decoupled, suggesting that the oxygen limitation hypothesis might not be as general as proposed. However, no direct tests of this hypothesis or its predictions have been undertaken in terrestrial species. We use a terrestrial isopod (Armadillidium vulgare) and a tenebrionid beetle (Gonocephalum simplex) to test the prediction that thermal tolerance should vary with oxygen partial pressure. Whilst in the isopod critical thermal maximum declined with declining oxygen concentration, this was not the case in the beetle. Efficient oxygen delivery via a tracheal system makes oxygen limitation of thermal tolerance, at a whole organism level, unlikely in insects. By contrast, oxygen limitation of thermal tolerances is expected to apply to species, like the isopod, in which the circulatory system contributes significantly to oxygen delivery. Because insects dominate terrestrial systems, oxygen limitation of thermal tolerance cannot be considered pervasive in this habitat, although it is a characteristic of marine species.

Key words: critical thermal limits, critical thermal maximum (CT_max), oxygen limitation, tracheated arthropods, marine, terrestrial

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