Thermal tolerance
- 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).
- High-frequency temperature variability mirrors fixed differences in thermal limits of the massive coral Porites lobata
Summary: Corals native to highly variable habitats demonstrate greater thermal tolerance than corals from less variable habitats after 36 days of acclimation to thermally stable or variable common garden treatments.
- Hyperoxia increases maximum oxygen consumption and aerobic scope of intertidal fish facing acutely high temperatures
Highlighted Article: Hyperoxia increases maximum oxygen uptake and metabolic scope in intertidal fish facing acutely high temperatures but does not increase upper thermal tolerance limits.
- Automated measurement of upper thermal limits in small aquatic animals
Summary: We present a method for the automated measurement of upper thermal tolerance in small aquatic organisms from video data.
- Can physiological engineering/programming increase multi-generational thermal tolerance to extreme temperature events?
Summary: Heat hardening may be augmented by physiological regulators within and across generations, with variable effects on thermal tolerance.
- Rapid adaptive response to a Mediterranean environment reduces phenotypic mismatch in a recent amphibian invader
Highlighted Article: The integration of field and laboratory experiments shows that a recent amphibian invader reduces phenotypic mismatch with the novel environment through physiological and behavioural responses across an unusually short time scale.