气候介导的能量约束对冬眠哺乳动物的分布
Murray M Humphries1, Donald W Thomas, John R Speakman
1Department of Zoology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3TZ, UK. murray_humphries@hotmail.com
Nature
|July 19, 2002
概括
全球气候变化影响动物生物地理. 一个新的生物能量模型预测了蝙蝠的冬眠成功,这表明由于温度升高而导致范围向北扩张.
科学领域:
- 生态生态学 生态生态学
- 气候变化生物学 气候变化生物学
- 生理生态生态学 生理生态学
背景情况:
- 了解气候变化对物种分布的影响,需要将气候与生物地理联系起来.
- 能量约束和生理变异是动物分布的关键因素,但它们与气候的因果关系尚不清楚.
- 生物能源模型为探索这些气候与生物地理联系提供了一个框架.
研究的目的:
- 开发一种生物能量模型,预测哺乳动物在不同气候条件下冬眠的可行性.
- 调查冬眠能量的热依赖对物种生物地理学的影响.
- 为了应对气候变化,预测冬眠物种的潜在范围变化.
主要方法:
- 开发了一种生物能量模型来评估冬眠的可行性.
- 用小棕色蝙蝠 (Myotis lucifugus) 的冬眠能量数据对模型进行参数化.
- 综合气候变化预测,以预测未来的分布变化.
主要成果:
- 环境温度显著影响冬季冬眠的能源需求.
- 成功的冬眠需要一个狭窄的冬眠温度和冬季持续时间范围.
- 模型预测与观察到的微息地使用和Myotis lucifugus的北方分布极限保持一致.
- 预计在80年内,冬眠蝙蝠的范围将向北显著扩大.
结论:
- 冬眠能量的热依赖是哺乳动物生物地理学的关键约束.
- 生物能源学为预测气候变化对物种分布的影响提供了关键的联系.
- 气候变暖可能会促进冬眠蝙蝠种群向北扩张.
相关概念视频
00:53Migration
Migration is long-range, seasonal movement from one region or habitat to another. This common strategy, carried out by many different organisms around the world, is an adaptive response that typically corresponds to changes in an organism’s environment, like resource availability or climate. Migrations can involve huge groups of thousands of animals as well as single individuals traveling alone and can range from thousands of kilometers to just a few hundred meters.
00:51Energy Budgets
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...
01:32What is Natural Selection?
Natural selection is an evolutionary process in which individuals with survival-promoting traits reproduce at higher rates. These favorable traits become more common within a population or species. Naturally selected traits initially arise via random genetic mutations. In order for selection to occur, there must be variation within a population, the trait controlling the variation must be heritable, and there must be an evolutionary advantage for variation in the trait.
02:39Predator-Prey Interactions
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.
02:45Biological Clocks and Seasonal Responses
The circadian—or biological—clock is an intrinsic, timekeeping, molecular mechanism that allows plants to coordinate physiological activities over 24-hour cycles called circadian rhythms. Photoperiodism is a collective term for the biological responses of plants to variations in the relative lengths of dark and light periods. The period of light-exposure is called the photoperiod.
01:26Thermoregulation
The human body has a sophisticated thermoregulation system that employs negative feedback mechanisms to maintain an optimal core temperature. When the core temperature drops, peripheral and central thermoreceptors send signals to the hypothalamus, activating the heat-promoting center. This center triggers several responses aimed at increasing the core temperature. First, vasoconstriction reduces the flow of warm blood from internal organs to the skin so that the heat is not lost from the skin,...