Metabolic plasticity can amplify ecosystem responses to global warming

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Physiology
• Climate Change Biology

Background:

• Organisms can adjust to warming via acclimation or adaptation.
• The impact of metabolic plasticity on food web energy flow is not well understood.
• A universal framework for modeling these ecosystem effects is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how metabolic plasticity in stream invertebrates affects ecosystem energy flow under warming.
• To develop a model incorporating metabolic plasticity for predicting warming impacts.
• To determine the relationship between body size, temperature exposure, and metabolic rate.

Main Methods:

• Conducted temperature-controlled experiments on stream invertebrates across a natural thermal gradient.
• Measured whole-organismal metabolic rate after chronic warming exposure.
• Developed and parameterized a mathematical model using experimental data.

Main Results:

• Metabolic rate increase in response to warming decreases with increasing body size.
• Chronic warming increases acute thermal sensitivity of metabolic rate, regardless of body size.
• A model including metabolic plasticity predicts 60% higher energy flux with +2°C warming compared to traditional models.

Conclusions:

• Metabolic plasticity significantly alters ecosystem energy flow under warming.
• Body size influences an organism's capacity for metabolic acclimation.
• Integrating metabolic plasticity into models is crucial for accurate predictions of global warming impacts on ecosystems.