Elevation shapes thermal breadth and climate sensitivity in Moltrecht's treefrog tadpoles.

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Climate Change Biology
• Herpetology

Background:

• Global climate change increases temperatures and extreme weather events, impacting organisms.
• Understanding thermal tolerance is key to assessing species' resilience to temperature limits.
• The climate variability hypothesis suggests species in variable climates have broader thermal tolerance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test the climate variability hypothesis in different populations of the same species.
• To examine the thermal tolerance breadth and plasticity in Zhangixalus moltrechti tadpoles.
• To assess how varying elevations influence thermal tolerance limits.

Main Methods:

• Investigated critical thermal tolerance of Zhangixalus moltrechti tadpoles.
• Recorded microclimates across different elevations.
• Analyzed upper and lower thermal tolerance limits and their plasticity.

Main Results:

• Tadpoles from higher elevations displayed a broader thermal tolerance breadth.
• Elevation significantly influenced the critical thermal minimum.
• Cold tolerance plasticity exceeded heat tolerance plasticity.

Conclusions:

• Intraspecific variation in thermal tolerance is influenced by environmental conditions.
• Populations of the same species face different climate change threats.
• Low-elevation Zhangixalus moltrechti populations are at higher risk from global warming.