Meeting Abstract

98.11  Thursday, Jan. 7  If you can’t stand the heat: how CTmax drives thermal breadth in beetles across latitude SHELDON, Kimberly S.*; TEWKSBURY, Joshua J.; University of Washington, Seattle; University of Washington, Seattle ksheldon@u.washington.edu

Despite nearly a century of work on physiological response of organisms to temperature, we still do not know the exact nature of the relationship between environmental temperatures and physiological variability. Yet, knowledge of the impacts of temperature on physiology has become increasingly crucial as global warming threatens species around the world. Using dung (Scarabaeinae) and burying (Silphidae) beetles, we found that beetles living in areas with greater temperature variation had greater breadth of tolerance, consistent with previous research. Contrary to other findings, however, CTmax varied consistently across latitude, while CTmin did not always change. Here we present our results on critical thermal limits along with an analysis of temperature variables potentially driving thermal tolerance in beetles.