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Thompson CL, Hermann EA. Behavioral thermoregulation in primates: A review of literature and future avenues. Am J Primatol 2024; 86:e23614. [PMID: 38433290 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23614] [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: 07/31/2023] [Revised: 02/13/2024] [Accepted: 02/17/2024] [Indexed: 03/05/2024]
Abstract
Primates face severe challenges from climate change, with warming expected to increase animals' thermoregulatory demands. Primates have limited long-term options to cope with climate change, but possess a remarkable capacity for behavioral plasticity. This creates an urgency to better understand the behavioral mechanisms primates use to thermoregulate. While considerable information exists on primate behavioral thermoregulation, it is often scattered in the literature in a manner that is difficult to integrate. This review evaluates the status of the available literature on primate behavioral thermoregulation to facilitate future research. We surveyed peer-reviewed publications on primate thermoregulation for N = 17 behaviors across four thermoregulatory categories: activity budgeting, microhabitat use, body positioning, and evaporative cooling. We recorded data on the primate taxa evaluated, support for a thermoregulatory function, thermal variable assessed, and naturalistic/manipulative study conditions. Behavioral thermoregulation was pervasive across primates, with N = 721 cases of thermoregulatory behaviors identified across N = 284 published studies. Most genera were known to utilize multiple behaviors (x ¯ = 4.5 ± 3.1 behaviors/genera). Activity budgeting behaviors were the most commonly encountered category in the literature (54.5% of cases), while evaporative cooling behaviors were the least represented (6.9% of cases). Behavioral thermoregulation studies were underrepresented for certain taxonomic groups, including lemurs, lorises, galagos, and Central/South American primates, and there were large within-taxa disparities in representation of genera. Support for a thermoregulatory function was consistently high across all behaviors, spanning both hot- and cold-avoidance strategies. This review reveals asymmetries in the current literature and avenues for future research. Increased knowledge of the impact thermoregulatory behaviors have on biologically relevant outcomes is needed to better assess primate responses to warming environments and develop early indicators of thermal stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cynthia L Thompson
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan, USA
| | - Emily A Hermann
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan, USA
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Gilbert E, Žagar A, López-Darias M, Megía-Palma R, Lister KA, Jones MD, Carretero MA, Serén N, Beltran-Alvarez P, Valero KCW. Environmental factors influence cross-talk between a heat shock protein and an oxidative stress protein modification in the lizard Gallotia galloti. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0300111. [PMID: 38470891 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2023] [Accepted: 02/21/2024] [Indexed: 03/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Better understanding how organisms respond to their abiotic environment, especially at the biochemical level, is critical in predicting population trajectories under climate change. In this study, we measured constitutive stress biomarkers and protein post-translational modifications associated with oxidative stress in Gallotia galloti, an insular lizard species inhabiting highly heterogeneous environments on Tenerife. Tenerife is a small volcanic island in a relatively isolated archipelago off the West coast of Africa. We found that expression of GRP94, a molecular chaperone protein, and levels of protein carbonylation, a marker of cellular stress, change across different environments, depending on solar radiation-related variables and topology. Here, we report in a wild animal population, cross-talk between the baseline levels of the heat shock protein-like GRP94 and oxidative damage (protein carbonylation), which are influenced by a range of available temperatures, quantified through modelled operative temperature. This suggests a dynamic trade-off between cellular homeostasis and oxidative damage in lizards adapted to this thermally and topologically heterogeneous environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edward Gilbert
- School of Natural Sciences, The University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom
- Energy and Environment Institute, The University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom
| | - Anamarija Žagar
- National Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- CIBIO Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, InBIO, Universidade do Porto Campus de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal
| | - Marta López-Darias
- Instituto de Productos Naturales y Agrobiología (IPNA-CSIC), La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
| | - Rodrigo Megía-Palma
- CIBIO Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, InBIO, Universidade do Porto Campus de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal
- Universidad de Alcalá (UAH), Biomedicine and Biotechnology, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain
- BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal
| | - Karen A Lister
- Biomedical Institute for Multimorbidity, Centre for Biomedicine, Hull York Medical School, The University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom
| | - Max Dolton Jones
- Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, United States of America
| | - Miguel A Carretero
- CIBIO Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, InBIO, Universidade do Porto Campus de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal
- BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal
- Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
| | - Nina Serén
- CIBIO Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, InBIO, Universidade do Porto Campus de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal
- BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal
- Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
| | - Pedro Beltran-Alvarez
- Biomedical Institute for Multimorbidity, Centre for Biomedicine, Hull York Medical School, The University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom
| | - Katharina C Wollenberg Valero
- School of Natural Sciences, The University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom
- School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Belfield Campus, Dublin, Ireland
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Crino OL, Bonduriansky R, Martin LB, Noble DWA. A conceptual framework for understanding stress-induced physiological and transgenerational effects on population responses to climate change. Evol Lett 2024; 8:161-171. [PMID: 38370553 PMCID: PMC10871929 DOI: 10.1093/evlett/qrad037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2022] [Revised: 08/03/2023] [Accepted: 09/04/2023] [Indexed: 02/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Organisms are experiencing higher average temperatures and greater temperature variability because of anthropogenic climate change. Some populations respond to changes in temperature by shifting their ranges or adjusting their phenotypes via plasticity and/or evolution, while others go extinct. Predicting how populations will respond to temperature changes is challenging because extreme and unpredictable climate changes will exert novel selective pressures. For this reason, there is a need to understand the physiological mechanisms that regulate organismal responses to temperature changes. In vertebrates, glucocorticoid hormones mediate physiological and behavioral responses to environmental stressors and thus are likely to play an important role in how vertebrates respond to global temperature changes. Glucocorticoids have cascading effects that influence the phenotype and fitness of individuals, and some of these effects can be transmitted to offspring via trans- or intergenerational effects. Consequently, glucocorticoid-mediated responses could affect populations and could even be a powerful driver of rapid evolutionary change. Here, we present a conceptual framework that outlines how temperature changes due to global climate change could affect population persistence via glucocorticoid responses within and across generations (via epigenetic modifications). We briefly review glucocorticoid physiology, the interactions between environmental temperatures and glucocorticoid responses, and the phenotypic consequences of glucocorticoid responses within and across generations. We then discuss possible hypotheses for how glucocorticoid-mediated phenotypic effects might impact fitness and population persistence via evolutionary change. Finally, we pose pressing questions to guide future research. Understanding the physiological mechanisms that underpin the responses of vertebrates to elevated temperatures will help predict population-level responses to the changing climates we are experiencing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ondi L Crino
- College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA, Australia
- Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Russell Bonduriansky
- Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Lynn B Martin
- Global Health and Infectious Disease Research Center and Center for Genomics, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
| | - Daniel W A Noble
- Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
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Jimeno B, Verhulst S. Meta-analysis reveals glucocorticoid levels reflect variation in metabolic rate, not 'stress'. eLife 2023; 12:RP88205. [PMID: 37889839 PMCID: PMC10611431 DOI: 10.7554/elife.88205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Glucocorticoid (GC) variation has long been thought to reflect variation in organismal 'stress,' but associations between GCs and Darwinian fitness components are diverse in magnitude, direction, and highly context-dependent. This paradox reveals our poor understanding of the causes of GC variation, contrasting with the detailed knowledge of the functional consequences of GC variation. Amongst an array of effects in many physiological systems, GCs orchestrate energy availability to anticipate and recover from predictable and unpredictable environmental fluctuations and challenges. Although this is mechanistically well-known, the extent to which GC levels are quantitatively explained by energy metabolism is unresolved. We investigated this association through meta-analysis, selecting studies of endotherms in which (1) an experiment was performed that affected metabolic rate and (2) metabolic rate and GC levels were measured simultaneously. We found that an increase in metabolic rate was associated with an increase in GC levels in 20 out of 21 studies (32 out of 35 effect sizes). More importantly, there was a strong positive correlation between the increases in metabolic rate and GCs (p=0.003). This pattern was similar in birds and mammals, and independent of the nature of the experimental treatment. We conclude that metabolic rate is a major driver of GC variation within individuals. Stressors often affect metabolic rate, leading us to question whether GC levels provide information on 'stress' beyond the stressor's effect on metabolic rate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Blanca Jimeno
- Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC), CSIC-UCLM-JCC, Ciudad Real, Spain
- Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologia (IPE), CSIC, Avda. Nuestra Señora de la Victoria, Jaca, Spain
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Rubalcaba JG, Gouveia SF, Villalobos F, Olalla-Tárraga MÁ, Sunday J. Climate drives global functional trait variation in lizards. Nat Ecol Evol 2023; 7:524-534. [PMID: 36878986 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02007-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2022] [Accepted: 02/03/2023] [Indexed: 03/08/2023]
Abstract
A major challenge in ecology and evolution is to disentangle the mechanisms driving broad-scale variation in biological traits such as body size, colour, thermal physiology traits and behaviour. Climate has long been thought to drive trait evolution and abiotic filtering of trait variation in ectotherms because their thermal performance and fitness are closely related to environmental conditions. However, previous studies investigating climatic variables associated with trait variation have lacked a mechanistic description of the underpinning processes. Here, we use a mechanistic model to predict how climate affects thermal performance of ectotherms and thereby the direction and strength of the effect of selection on different functional traits. We show that climate drives macro-evolutionary patterns in body size, cold tolerance and preferred body temperatures among lizards, and that trait variation is more constrained in regions where selection is predicted to be stronger. These findings provide a mechanistic explanation for observations on how climate drives trait variation in ectotherms through its effect on thermal performance. By connecting physical, physiological and macro-evolutionary principles, the model and results provide an integrative, mechanistic framework for predicting organismal responses to present climates and climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juan G Rubalcaba
- Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
- Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Móstoles, Madrid, Spain.
| | - Sidney F Gouveia
- Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Brazil
| | | | - Miguel Á Olalla-Tárraga
- Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Móstoles, Madrid, Spain
| | - Jennifer Sunday
- Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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Rubalcaba JG, Jimeno B. Body temperature and activity patterns modulate glucocorticoid levels across lizard species: A macrophysiological approach. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.1032083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Environmental and intrinsic factors interact to determine energy requirements in vertebrates. Glucocorticoid hormones (GCs) are key mediators of this interaction, as they fluctuate with energetic demands and regulate physiological and behavioral responses to environmental challenges. While a great body of research has focused on GC variation among individuals, the mechanisms driving GC variation across species and at broad spatial scales remain largely unexplored. Here, we adopted a macrophysiological approach to investigate the environmental factors and life-history traits driving variation in baseline GCs across lizard species. We tested three hypotheses: (1) If GCs increase with body temperature to meet higher metabolic demand, we expect an association between average baseline GCs and the mean species’ body temperature in the field (GC-temperature dependence hypothesis); (2) If GCs mediate behavioral responses to avoid thermal extremes, we expect that individuals frequently exposed to extreme conditions exhibit higher baseline GC levels (Behavioral thermoregulation hypothesis); (3) If GCs increase to support higher energy demands in active foragers during their period of activity, we expect that active foraging species have higher baseline GCs than sit-and-wait foragers, and that GC levels increase in relation to the duration of daily activity windows (Activity hypothesis). We used biophysical models to calculate operative temperatures and the activity patterns of lizards in sun-exposed and shaded microenvironments. Then, we tested the association between baseline GCs, body temperature, operative temperatures, foraging mode, and activity windows across 37 lizard species, using data from HormoneBase. Our comparative analyses showed that variation in baseline GCs was primarily related to the mean field body temperature and foraging mode, with higher baseline GCs in active foragers with higher body temperatures. Our results suggest that body temperature and foraging mode drive GC variation through their effects on energy requirements across lizard species.
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