Thermal tolerance
- Climate change and invasive species: a physiological performance comparison of invasive and endemic bees in Fiji
Highlighted Article: Invasive bees in Fiji have greater thermal tolerance and are more desiccation resistant than the only native bee in lowland Fiji. Plant–pollinator relationships might shift with continued climate warming.
- Rapid-warming tolerance correlates with tolerance to slow warming but not growth at non-optimal temperatures in zebrafish
Summary: We show that critical thermal maximum (CTmax), measured at a rapid warming rate, is a relevant proxy for more prolonged thermal challenges, but cannot be used to predict growth rate in zebrafish.
- Mitochondria and the thermal limits of ectotherms
Summary: New perspectives and methodologies for investigating the thermal limits of mitochondrial performance suggest that these organelles may play a role in shaping thermal limits at the organismal level.
- Heat and water loss versus shelter: a dilemma in thermoregulatory decision making for a retreat-dwelling nocturnal gecko
Summary: Duration of heating but not voluntary thermal maximum predicted water loss in a cool-climate viviparous gecko.
- Neural dysfunction correlates with heat coma and CTmax in Drosophila but does not set the boundaries for heat stress survival
Summary: Hyperthermic failure of the Drosophila central nervous system causes heat coma, a trait varying in temperature between drosophilids, but neural failure is not the primary cause of heat mortality.
- 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.
- Microclimate buffering and thermal tolerance across elevations in a tropical butterfly
Editors' Choice: Tropical forests along the Andes can greatly buffer climate. Butterflies inhabiting high elevations are less thermally tolerant but common-garden experiments suggest this is largely due to phenotypic plasticity.
- Facultative hyperthermia during a heatwave delays injurious dehydration of an arboreal marsupial
Highlighted Article: When it is hot outside, a possum can save water and avoid dangerous levels of dehydration by letting its body temperature rise with the heat.
- Nitrite-induced reductions in heat tolerance are independent of aerobic scope in a freshwater teleost
Summary: Nitrite is a pervasive pollutant in aquatic habitats, which affects both heat tolerance and aerobic scope in juvenile European carp (Cyprinus carpio).