Haque Md Tangigul, Paul Shatabdi, Herberstein Marie E, Khan Md Kawsar
School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, 2109, Australia.
Department Biology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195, Berlin, Germany.
Oecologia. 2025 Jun 24;207(7):109. doi: 10.1007/s00442-025-05745-w.
An animal's response to climate warming is predominantly governed by its thermal tolerance. Seasonal temperature variation may indicate the boundaries of plasticity in insect thermal tolerance, which could predict the capacity to adapt to future climates. Here, we assess the changes in thermal breadth (the difference between the critical thermal maximum (CTmax) and critical thermal minimum (CTmin)) to estimate the thermal safety margin in Ischnura heterosticta and Xanthagrion erythroneurum damselflies across different seasons. For both species, CTmax and CTmin increased with monthly temperature, with a stronger increase of CTmin in summer. Overall, thermal breadth was broad in spring and autumn (around 41 degrees) but in summer we observed a large number of individuals with substantially narrower thermal breadth (down to 26-35 degrees). Our results establish considerable seasonal thermal plasticity in damselflies, which might provide a degree of resilience in future climates, yet during the most critical season (summer), heat spikes might push a substantial proportion of the population beyond their limits.
动物对气候变暖的反应主要受其热耐受性的支配。季节性温度变化可能表明昆虫热耐受性可塑性的界限，这可以预测其适应未来气候的能力。在这里，我们评估了热幅（临界热最大值（CTmax）与临界热最小值（CTmin）之间的差异）的变化，以估计异色异痣蟌和红腹细蟌在不同季节的热安全边际。对于这两个物种，CTmax和CTmin均随月温度升高而增加，其中CTmin在夏季的增幅更大。总体而言，春秋季的热幅较宽（约41摄氏度），但在夏季，我们观察到大量个体的热幅大幅变窄（降至26 - 35摄氏度）。我们的研究结果表明豆娘具有显著的季节性热可塑性，这可能为其在未来气候中提供一定程度的恢复力，然而在最关键的季节（夏季），温度峰值可能会使相当一部分种群超出其耐受极限。
