Morphological and behavioural differences facilitate tropical butterfly persistence in variable environments

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60077344%3A_____%2F21%3A00546651" target="_blank" >RIV/60077344:_____/21:00546651 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.13589" target="_blank" >https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.13589</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13589" target="_blank" >10.1111/1365-2656.13589</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Morphological and behavioural differences facilitate tropical butterfly persistence in variable environments

Original language description

The thermal biology of ectotherms largely determines their abundance and distributions. In general, tropical species inhabiting warm and stable thermal environments tend to have low tolerance to cold and variable environments, which may restrict their expansion into temperate climates. However, the distribution of some tropical species does extend into cooler areas such as tropical borders and high elevation tropical mountains. Behavioural and morphological differences may therefore play important roles in facilitating tropical species to cope with cold and variable climates at tropical edges. We used field-validated biophysical models to estimate body temperatures of butterflies across elevational gradients at three sites in southern China and assessed the contribution of behavioural and morphological differences in facilitating their persistence in tropical and temperate climates. We investigated the effects of temperature on the activity of 4,844 individuals of 144 butterfly species along thermal gradients and tested whether species of different climatic affinities-tropical and widespread (distributed in both temperate and tropical regions)-differed in their thermoregulatory strategies (i.e. basking). In addition, we tested whether thermally related morphology or the strength of solar radiation (when butterflies were recorded) was related to such differences. We found that activities of tropical species were restricted (low abundance) at low air temperatures compared to widespread species. Active tropical species were also more likely to bask at cooler body temperatures than widespread species. Heat gain from behavioural thermoregulation was higher for tropical species (when accounting for species abundance), and heat gain correlated with larger thorax widths but not with measured solar radiation. Our results indicate that physiological intolerance to cold temperatures in tropical species may be compensated through behavioural and morphological responses in thermoregulation in variable subtropical environments. Increasing climatic variability with climate change may render tropical species more vulnerable to cold weather extremes compared to widespread species that are more physiologically suited to variable environments.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10616 - Entomology

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Journal of Animal Ecology

ISSN

0021-8790

e-ISSN

1365-2656

Volume of the periodical

90

Issue of the periodical within the volume

12

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

13

Pages from-to

2888-2900

UT code for WoS article

000702893200001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85116110168