Meeting Abstract

S9.3  Friday, Jan. 7  Can generalized models of thermoregulation predict responses of endotherms to climate change? BOYLES, J.G.*; SMIT, B.; MCKECHNIE, A.E.; University of Pretoria; University of Pretoria; University of Pretoria jgboyles@zoology.up.ac.za

Several recent papers have considered thermoregulation in endotherms in an adaptive framework similar to that often applied to ectotherms. Empirical tests of the predictions made in these papers are still rare, but the available evidence suggests this viewpoint has merit and may increase our understanding of how endotherms will respond to changing thermal environments. However, most research in this area has focused on endotherms exposed to temperatures below thermoneutrality, with far less attention paid to testing the validity of the framework when endotherms are exposed to temperatures above their thermoneutral zone, which is likely important in regard to climate change. Therefore, we provide a summary of the limited empirical literature on the subject and then expand and generalize a predictive framework presented elsewhere into a more exhaustive discussion about how endotherms should alter thermoregulatory patterns under various types of heat stress. We then discuss the implications of this generalized model in the context of climate change with an emphasis on comparative predictions about how individuals, populations or species should respond to climate change given differences in thermoregulatory patterns and thermal sensitivities. We consider both long-term, directional climate change and short-term (but increasingly common) anomalies in climate such as extreme heat waves.