Ecological consequences of body size reduction under warming.
Proc Biol Sci
; 291(2029): 20241250, 2024 Aug.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39166384
ABSTRACT
Body size reduction is a universal response to warming, but its ecological consequences across biological levels, from individuals to ecosystems, remain poorly understood. Most biological processes scale with body size, and warming-induced changes in body size can therefore have important ecological consequences. To understand these consequences, we propose a unifying, hierarchical framework for the ecological impacts of intraspecific body size reductions due to thermal plasticity that explicitly builds on three key pathways morphological constraints, bioenergetic constraints and surface-to-volume ratio. Using this framework, we synthesize key consequences of warming-induced body size reductions at multiple levels of biological organization. We outline how this trait-based framework can improve our understanding, detection and generalization of the ecological impacts of warming.
Key words
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Ecosystem
/
Body Size
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
Proc Biol Sci
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA
Year:
2024
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
France