Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 23, 2025
07:37
Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications
Published on: January 19, 2018
18.3K
Climate change and population persistence in a hibernating marsupial
Roberto F Nespolo1,2,3, Julian F Quintero-Galvis1,2, Francisco E Fontúrbel2,4
1Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Universidad Austral de Chile , Valdivia, Chile.
Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|June 26, 2024
Summary
Climate change threatens hibernating mammals by altering winter temperatures crucial for survival. Models predict declines in some populations, while others may persist in cooler environments.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Climate Change Biology
- Physiology
Background:
- Climate change poses physiological challenges to organisms, exceeding adaptation rates.
- Hibernating mammals are vulnerable to temperature shifts impacting winter survival and energy demands.
- Torpor arousal due to exceeding temperature thresholds increases energy needs when food is scarce.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a numerical model for predicting energy consumption in heterothermic species.
- To model the winter survival of hibernating mammals under various climate change scenarios.
- To assess the impact of climate change on the monito del monte (Dromiciops) populations.
Main Methods:
- Parameterization of a numerical model for energy consumption in heterothermic species.
- Modeling winter survival across four Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate change scenarios.
- Utilizing the monito del monte (Dromiciops) as a model species for South American hibernators.
Main Results:
- Northern and coastal populations of Dromiciops bozinovici are predicted to decline.
- These populations face reduced winter survival due to insufficient cold days and habitat fragmentation.
- Andean and highland populations in cooler environments are projected to persist and thrive.
Conclusions:
- Simple physiological models are essential for predicting short-term species responses to climate warming.
- Widespread hibernating mammal populations globally may face similar climate-driven survival challenges.
- Conservation strategies must consider regional climate projections and habitat-specific vulnerabilities.
Related Concept Videos
02:07Conservation of Declining Populations
9.6K
Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.
9.6K
01:50Global Climate Change
24.3K
Throughout its ~4.5 billion year history, the Earth has experienced periods of warming and cooling. However, the current drastic increase in global temperatures is well outside of the Earth’s cyclic norms, and evidence for human-caused global climate change is compelling. Paleoclimatology, the study of ancient climate conditions, provides ample evidence for human-caused global climate change by comparing recent conditions with those in the past.
24.3K
02:04Conservation of Small Populations
13.1K
Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less...
13.1K
02:39Predator-Prey Interactions
16.2K
Predators consume prey for energy. Predators that acquire prey and prey that avoid predation both increase their chances of survival and reproduction (i.e., fitness). Routine predator-prey interactions elicit mutual adaptations that improve predator offenses, such as claws, teeth, and speed, as well as prey defenses, including crypsis, aposematism, and mimicry. Thus, predator-prey interactions resemble an evolutionary arms race.
16.2K
00:51Energy Budgets
9.2K
Organisms must balance energy intake with the energy required for growth, maintenance and reproduction. These trade-offs result in a variety of survivorship and reproductive strategies, including semelparity and iteroparity. Semelparous species, like annual plants, have only one reproductive episode in their lifetimes and consequently have short lifespans. Iteroparous species, by contrast, have many reproductive events during their lifetimes but have relatively few offspring. These two...
9.2K
02:35What is Evolutionary History?
36.4K
Scientists record evolutionary history by analyzing fossil, morphological, and genetic data. The fossil record documents the history of life on Earth and provides evidence for evolution. However, both fossil and living organisms offer evidence that outlines Earth’s evolutionary history.
36.4K