Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2020 Jul 29;287(1931):20200823. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2020.0823. Epub 2020 Jul 15.
Understanding rates and patterns of change in physiological and climatic-niche variables is of urgent importance as many species are increasingly threatened by rising global temperatures. Here, we broadly test several fundamental hypotheses about physiological and niche evolution for the first time (with appropriate phylogenetic methods), using published data from 2059 vertebrate species. Our main results show that: (i) physiological tolerances to heat evolve more slowly than those to cold, (ii) the hottest climatic-niche temperatures change more slowly than the coldest climatic-niche temperatures, and (iii) physiological tolerances to heat and cold evolve more slowly than the corresponding climatic-niche variables. Physiological tolerances are significantly and positively related to the corresponding climatic-niche variables, but species often occur in climates outside the range of these tolerances. However, mismatches between climate and physiology do not necessarily mean that the climatic-niche data are misleading. Instead, some standard physiological variables used in vertebrates (i.e. critical thermal maxima and minima) may reflect when species are active (daily, seasonally) and their local-scale microhabitats (sun versus shade), rather than their large-scale climatic distributions.
了解生理和气候生态位变量的变化速度和模式至关重要，因为许多物种正越来越受到全球升温的威胁。在这里，我们首次使用来自 2059 种脊椎动物的已发表数据，广泛检验了关于生理和生态位进化的几个基本假说（采用适当的系统发育方法）。我们的主要研究结果表明：（i）对热的生理耐受性的进化速度比对冷的生理耐受性的进化速度慢，（ii）最热的气候生态位温度的变化速度比最冷的气候生态位温度的变化速度慢，（iii）对热和冷的生理耐受性的进化速度比相应的气候生态位变量的进化速度慢。生理耐受性与相应的气候生态位变量显著正相关，但物种通常出现在这些耐受性范围之外的气候中。然而，气候和生理之间的不匹配并不一定意味着气候生态位数据是误导性的。相反，脊椎动物中使用的一些标准生理变量（即临界热最大值和最小值）可能反映了物种的活动时间（日常、季节性）及其局部尺度的微生境（阳光与阴凉），而不是它们的大尺度气候分布。
