Unifying climate change biology across realms and taxa

A major challenge in modern biology is to understand extinction risk from climate change across all realms. Recent research has revealed that physiological tolerance, behavioral thermoregulation, and small elevation shifts are dominant coping strategies on land, whereas large-scale latitudinal shift...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in ecology & evolution (Amsterdam) 2022-08, Vol.37 (8), p.672-682
Main Authors: Pinsky, Malin L., Comte, Lise, Sax, Dov F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
extinction
global change
global warming
microclimate
range shift
thermoregulation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A major challenge in modern biology is to understand extinction risk from climate change across all realms. Recent research has revealed that physiological tolerance, behavioral thermoregulation, and small elevation shifts are dominant coping strategies on land, whereas large-scale latitudinal shifts are more important in the ocean. Freshwater taxa may face the highest global extinction risks. Nevertheless, some species in each realm face similar risks because of shared adaptive, dispersal, or physiological tolerances and abilities. Taking a cross-realm perspective offers unique research opportunities because confounding physical factors in one realm are often disaggregated in another realm. Cross-realm, across taxa, and other forms of climate change biology synthesis are needed to advance our understanding of emergent patterns of risk across all life. An integrated perspective crossing terrestrial, freshwater, and marine realms is essential to understand where and why species are most vulnerable to climate change.The dominant ecoevolutionary processes for coping with climate change differ across realms.Cross-taxa and cross-realm research can provide unique insights and opportunities to advance our understanding of the processes and mechanisms threatening species survival.Academic culture and practice often impede cross-realm research, such that structural and cultural transitions are needed to advance a more unified field of climate change biology.
ISSN:0169-5347
1872-8383
DOI:10.1016/j.tree.2022.04.011