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Laumeier R, Brändle M, Rödel MO, Brunzel S, Brandl R, Pinkert S. The global importance and interplay of colour-based protective and thermoregulatory functions in frogs. Nat Commun 2023; 14:8117. [PMID: 38114472 PMCID: PMC10730650 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43729-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2023] [Accepted: 11/10/2023] [Indexed: 12/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Small-scale studies have shown that colour lightness variation can have important physiological implications in ectotherms, with darker species having greater heating rates, as well as protection against pathogens and photooxidative damage. Using data for 41% (3059) of all known frog and toad species (Anura) from across the world, we reveal ubiquitous and strong clines of decreasing colour lightness towards colder regions and regions with higher pathogen pressure and UVB radiation. The relative importance of pathogen resistance is higher in the tropics and that of thermoregulation is higher in temperate regions. The results suggest that these functions influence colour lightness evolution in anurans and filtered for more similarly coloured species under climatic extremes, while their concurrent importance resulted in high within-assemblage variation in productive regions. Our findings indicate three important functions of colour lightness in anurans - thermoregulation, pathogen and UVB protection - and broaden support for colour lightness-environment relationships in ectotherms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ricarda Laumeier
- Department of Animal Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Karl-von-Frisch-Straße 8, 35043, Marburg, Germany.
- Department of Biodiversity and Species Conservation, Faculty of Landscape Architecture, Horticulture and Forestry, University of Applied Science Erfurt, Leipziger Straße 77, 99085, Erfurt, Germany.
| | - Martin Brändle
- Department of Animal Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Karl-von-Frisch-Straße 8, 35043, Marburg, Germany
| | - Mark-Oliver Rödel
- Department of Evolutionary Diversity Dynamics, Museum für Naturkunde-Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstraße 43, 10115, Berlin, Germany
| | - Stefan Brunzel
- Department of Biodiversity and Species Conservation, Faculty of Landscape Architecture, Horticulture and Forestry, University of Applied Science Erfurt, Leipziger Straße 77, 99085, Erfurt, Germany
| | - Roland Brandl
- Department of Animal Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Karl-von-Frisch-Straße 8, 35043, Marburg, Germany
| | - Stefan Pinkert
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 165 Prospect Street, 06511, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Conservation Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Karl-von-Frisch-Straße 8, 35043, Marburg, Germany
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Franke S, Pinkert S, Brandl R, Thorn S. Modeling the extinction risk of European butterflies and odonates. Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e9465. [PMID: 36381396 PMCID: PMC9643075 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.9465] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2021] [Revised: 10/07/2022] [Accepted: 10/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Insect populations have become increasingly threatened during the last decades due to climate change and landuse intensification. Species characteristics driving these threats remain poorly understood. Trait‐based analyses provide a straight‐forward approach to gain a mechanistic understanding of species' extinction risk, guiding the development of conservation strategies. We combined morphological traits and phylogenetic relationship for 332 European species of butterflies and 115 species of odonates (dragon and damselflies) to model their red list status via phylogenetically controlled ordered logistic regression. We hypothesized that extinction risk increases with increasing body volume and wing area, decreasing range size, and is larger for brighter species. All investigated traits exhibited a strong phylogenetic signal. When controlling for phylogenetic relationship, we found that extinction risk of butterflies increased with decreasing range size. The extinction risk of odonates showed no relationship with the selected traits. Our results show that there is no universal trait defining the extinction risk of our investigated insect taxa. Furthermore, evolutionary history, measured as the phylogenetically predicted part of our analyzed traits, poorly predicted extinction risk. Our study confirms the focus of conservation measures on European butterfly species with small range sizes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophia Franke
- Department of Animal Ecology, Faculty of Biology Philipps‐Universität Marburg Marburg Germany
| | - Stefan Pinkert
- Department of Conservation Ecology, Faculty of Biology Philipps‐Universität Marburg Marburg Germany
| | - Roland Brandl
- Department of Animal Ecology, Faculty of Biology Philipps‐Universität Marburg Marburg Germany
| | - Simon Thorn
- Hessian Agency for Nature Conservation, Environment and Geology State Institute for the Protection of Birds Gießen Germany
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3
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Engelhardt EK, Biber MF, Dolek M, Fartmann T, Hochkirch A, Leidinger J, Löffler F, Pinkert S, Poniatowski D, Voith J, Winterholler M, Zeuss D, Bowler DE, Hof C. Consistent signals of a warming climate in occupancy changes of three insect taxa over 40 years in central Europe. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2022; 28:3998-4012. [PMID: 35535680 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2021] [Revised: 03/22/2022] [Accepted: 03/30/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Recent climate and land-use changes are having substantial impacts on biodiversity, including population declines, range shifts, and changes in community composition. However, few studies have compared these impacts among multiple taxa, particularly because of a lack of standardized time series data over long periods. Existing data sets are typically of low resolution or poor coverage, both spatially and temporally, thereby limiting the inferences that can be drawn from such studies. Here, we compare climate and land-use driven occupancy changes in butterflies, grasshoppers, and dragonflies using an extensive data set of highly heterogeneous observation data collected in the central European region of Bavaria (Germany) over a 40-year period. Using occupancy models, we find occupancies (the proportion of sites occupied by a species in each year) of 37% of species have decreased, 30% have increased and 33% showed no significant trend. Butterflies and grasshoppers show strongest declines with 41% of species each. By contrast, 52% of dragonfly species increased. Temperature preference and habitat specificity appear as significant drivers of species trends. We show that cold-adapted species across all taxa have declined, whereas warm-adapted species have increased. In butterflies, habitat specialists have decreased, while generalists increased or remained stable. The trends of habitat generalists and specialists both in grasshoppers and semi-aquatic dragonflies, however did not differ. Our findings indicate strong and consistent effects of climate warming across insect taxa. The decrease of butterfly specialists could hint towards a threat from land-use change, as especially butterfly specialists' occurrence depends mostly on habitat quality and area. Our study not only illustrates how these taxa showed differing trends in the past but also provides hints on how we might mitigate the detrimental effects of human development on their diversity in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Katharina Engelhardt
- Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department for Life Science Systems, School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
| | - Matthias F Biber
- Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department for Life Science Systems, School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
| | | | - Thomas Fartmann
- Department of Biodiversity and Landscape Ecology, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany
| | - Axel Hochkirch
- Department of Biogeography, Trier University, Trier, Germany
| | - Jan Leidinger
- Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department for Life Science Systems, School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
| | - Franz Löffler
- Department of Biodiversity and Landscape Ecology, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany
| | - Stefan Pinkert
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
- Center for Biodiversity and Global Change, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
- Department of Conservation Ecology, Philipps Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Dominik Poniatowski
- Department of Biodiversity and Landscape Ecology, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany
| | - Johannes Voith
- Bayerisches Landesamt für Umwelt/Bavarian Environment Agency, Augsburg, Germany
| | - Michael Winterholler
- Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection, München, Germany
| | - Dirk Zeuss
- Department of Environmental Informatics, Philipps Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Diana E Bowler
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research-iDiv-Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
- Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Christian Hof
- Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department for Life Science Systems, School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
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Wenda C, Xing S, Nakamura A, Bonebrake TC. Morphological and behavioural differences facilitate tropical butterfly persistence in variable environments. J Anim Ecol 2021; 90:2888-2900. [PMID: 34529271 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2020] [Accepted: 08/30/2021] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cheng Wenda
- Division for Ecology & Biodiversity, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R, China
| | - Shuang Xing
- Division for Ecology & Biodiversity, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R, China.,Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
| | - Akihiro Nakamura
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, China
| | - Timothy C Bonebrake
- Division for Ecology & Biodiversity, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R, China
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Pinkert S, Zeuss D, Dijkstra KB, Kipping J, Clausnitzer V, Brunzel S, Brandl R. Climate–diversity relationships underlying cross‐taxon diversity of the African fauna and their implications for conservation. DIVERS DISTRIB 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/ddi.13134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Stefan Pinkert
- Faculty of Biology Ecology – Animal Ecology Philipps‐Universität Marburg Marburg Germany
- Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Yale University New Haven CT USA
| | - Dirk Zeuss
- Faculty of Geography Environmental Informatics Philipps‐Universität Marburg Marburg Germany
| | | | - Jens Kipping
- Department of Architecture Faculty Management and Geoinformation University of Applied Sciences Anhalt Köthen Germany
- BioCart Kipping, Environmental Consultant Taucha Germany
| | | | - Stefan Brunzel
- Faculty of Landscape Architecture, Biodiversity and Species Conservation University of Applied Sciences Erfurt Erfurt Germany
| | - Roland Brandl
- Faculty of Biology Ecology – Animal Ecology Philipps‐Universität Marburg Marburg Germany
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