Subject collection: Ecophysiology: responses to environmental stressors and change
- Thermal tolerance and hypoxia tolerance are associated in blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) neonates
Summary: Thermal tolerance is associated with hypoxia tolerance in blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) neonates. Both tolerance traits change with thermal acclimation, but aerobic scope and growth rates do not.
- Mussel acclimatization to high, variable temperatures is lost slowly upon transfer to benign conditions
Summary: Acclimatization to high, variable temperatures is lost slowly with constant submersion, potentially facilitating animals’ survival during intermittent stressful thermal events. Previous acclimatization state influences the changes observed with constant submersion.
- Impact of temperature on bite force and bite endurance in the leopard iguana (Diplolaemus leopardinus) in the Andes Mountains
Summary: Leopard iguanas bite during prey capture, defense, sexual competition and copulation. Experimental data show they would maintain or improve bite performance at the higher temperatures projected in climate-change scenarios.
- Oxygen supply capacity in animals evolves to meet maximum demand at the current oxygen partial pressure regardless of size or temperature
Summary: Maximum and basal metabolic rate and their oxygen, temperature and size dependencies are mechanistically and quantifiably linked via the physiological capacity to supply oxygen.
- Fish embryo vulnerability to combined acidification and warming coincides with a low capacity for homeostatic regulation
Summary: The gastrulation period represents a critical transition from inherited (maternal) defenses to active homeostatic regulation, which facilitates enhanced resilience of later stages to environmental factors.
- Reduced exploration capacity despite brain volume increase in warm-acclimated common minnow
Highlighted Article: In fish, thermal metabolic compensation in response to warming under predicted climate change scenarios may alter brain morphology and cognition, potentially causing fitness impairment.
- Reduced immune responsiveness contributes to winter energy conservation in an Arctic bird
Highlighted Article: Adaptation to the thermally extreme and pathogenically pristine high Arctic may select for year-round energy conservation at the expense of permanently reduced innate immune function.
- Experimental facilitation of heat loss affects work rate and innate immune function in a breeding passerine bird
Summary: Facilitation of heat loss in blue tits allows increased female investment in innate immune function (self-maintenance) without compromising current reproduction.
- The effects of elevated temperature and PCO2 on the energetics and haemolymph pH homeostasis of juveniles of the European lobster, Homarus gammarus
Summary: Energetic limitations of early juvenile development result in alterations to haemolymph buffering capacity in juvenile lobster exposed to elevated temperature and PCO2.
- Emergent properties of branching morphologies modulate the sensitivity of coral calcification to high PCO2
Summary: Decades of experiments with coral nubbins reveal strong physiological responses to temperature and PCO2. Similar effects do not occur in intact colonies (5–21 cm) of branching corals.