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Climate change

University of Nebraska - Lincoln

2020

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Trade-Offs Between Morphology And Thermal Niches Mediate Adaptation In Response To Competing Selective Pressures, Stella F. Uiterwaal, Ian T. Lagerstrom, Thomas M. Luhring, Miranda E. Salsbery, John P. Delong Jan 2020

Trade-Offs Between Morphology And Thermal Niches Mediate Adaptation In Response To Competing Selective Pressures, Stella F. Uiterwaal, Ian T. Lagerstrom, Thomas M. Luhring, Miranda E. Salsbery, John P. Delong

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The effects of climate change—such as increased temperature variability and novel predators—rarely happen in isolation, but it is unclear how organisms cope with mul- tiple stressors simultaneously. To explore this, we grew replicate Paramecium caudatum populations in either constant or variable temperatures and exposed half to predation. We then fit thermal performance curves (TPCs) of intrinsic growth rate (rmax) for each replicate population (N = 12) across seven temperatures (10°C–38°C). TPCs of P. caudatum exposed to both temperature variability and predation re- sponded only to one or the other (but not both), resulting in unpredictable outcomes. …


Temperature Alters The Shape Of Predator–Prey Cycles Through Effects On Underlying Mechanisms, John P. Delong, Shelby Lyon Jan 2020

Temperature Alters The Shape Of Predator–Prey Cycles Through Effects On Underlying Mechanisms, John P. Delong, Shelby Lyon

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background: Predicting the effects of climate warming on the dynamics of ecological systems requires understanding how temperature influences birth rates, death rates and the strength of species interactions. The temperature dependance of these processes—which are the underlying mechanisms of ecological dynamics—is often thought to be exponential or unimodal, generally supported by short-term experiments. However, ecological dynamics unfold over many generations. Our goal was to empirically document shifts in predator–prey cycles over the full range of temperatures that can possibly support a predator–prey system and then to uncover the effect of temperature on the underlying mechanisms driving those changes.

Methods: We …


Trade-Offs Between Morphology And Thermal Niches Mediate Adaptation In Response To Competing Selective Pressures, Stella F. Uiterwaal, Ian T. Lagerstrom, Thomas M. Luhring, Miranda E. Salsbery, John P. Delong Jan 2020

Trade-Offs Between Morphology And Thermal Niches Mediate Adaptation In Response To Competing Selective Pressures, Stella F. Uiterwaal, Ian T. Lagerstrom, Thomas M. Luhring, Miranda E. Salsbery, John P. Delong

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Abstract

The effects of climate change—such as increased temperature variability and novel predators—rarely happen in isolation, but it is unclear how organisms cope with multiple stressors simultaneously. To explore this, we grew replicate Paramecium caudatum populations in either constant or variable temperatures and exposed half to predation. We then fit thermal performance curves (TPCs) of intrinsic growth rate (rmax) for each replicate population (N = 12) across seven temperatures (10°C–38°C). TPCs of P. caudatum exposed to both temperature variability and predation responded only to one or the other (but not both), resulting in unpredictable outcomes. These changes in …