Evolutionary capacity of upper thermal limits: beyond single trait assessments

Evolutionary capacity of upper thermal limits: beyond single trait assessments.

Thermal tolerance is an important factor influencing the distribution of ectotherms, but we still have limited understanding of the ability of species to evolve different thermal limits. Recent studies suggest that species may have limited capacity to evolve higher thermal limits in response to slower, more ecologically relevant rates of warming. However, these conclusions are based on univaria...

Keeping pace with climate change: what is wrong with the evolutionary potential of upper thermal limits?

The potential of populations to evolve in response to ongoing climate change is partly conditioned by the presence of heritable genetic variation in relevant physiological traits. Recent research suggests that Drosophila melanogaster exhibits negligible heritability, hence little evolutionary potential in heat tolerance when measured under slow heating rates that presumably mimic conditions in ...

Exponential lethality: upper limits on suicide risk assessments.

Gene function beyond the single trait: natural variation, gene effects, and evolutionary ecology in Arabidopsis thaliana

The purpose of plant functional genomics is to describe the patterns of gene expression and internal plant function underlying the ecological functions that sustain plant growth and reproduction. Plants function as integrated systems in which metabolic and developmental pathways draw on common resource pools and respond to a relatively small number of signal/response systems. Plants are also in...

Oxygen dependence of upper thermal limits in fishes.

Temperature-induced limitations on the capacity of the cardiorespiratory system to transport oxygen from the environment to the tissues, manifested as a reduced aerobic scope (maximum minus standard metabolic rate), have been proposed as the principal determinant of the upper thermal limits of fishes and other water-breathing ectotherms. Consequently, the upper thermal niche boundaries of these...