Data from: Decreases in beetle body size linked to climate change and warming temperatures

1. Body size is a fundamental ecological trait and is correlated with population dynamics, community structure and function, and ecosystem fluxes. Laboratory data from broad taxonomic groups suggest that a widespread response to a warming world may be an overall decrease in organism body size. However, given the myriad of biotic and abiotic factors that can also influence organism body size in the wild, it is unclear whether results from these laboratory assays hold in nature. 2. Here we use data sets spanning 30 to 100 years to examine whether the body size of wild-caught beetles has changed over time, whether body size changes are correlated with increased temperatures, and we frame these results using predictions derived from a quantitative review of laboratory responses of 22 beetle species to temperature. 3. We found that 95% of lab-reared beetles decreased in size with increased rearing temperature, with larger-bodied species shrinking disproportionately more than smaller-bodied beetles. In addition, the museum data sets revealed that larger-bodied beetle species have decreased in size over time, that mean beetle body size explains much of the interspecific variation in beetle responses to temperature, and that long-term beetle size changes are explained by increases in autumn temperature and decreases in spring temperature in this region. 4. Our data demonstrate that the relationship between body size and temperature of wild-caught beetles matches relatively well with results from laboratory studies, and that variation in this relationship is largely explained by interspecific variation in mean beetle body size. 5. This long-term beetle dataset is one of the most comprehensive arthropod body size datasets compiled to date, it improves predictions regarding the shrinking of organisms with global climate change, and together with the meta-analysis data, call for new hypotheses to explain why larger-bodied organisms may be more sensitive to temperature.

1. 体型是一项核心生态性状，其与种群动态、群落结构与功能以及生态系统通量紧密关联。针对多个分类类群的实验室数据显示，面对全球变暖，生物体体型普遍下降或为一种广泛存在的响应模式。然而，野外环境中存在大量可影响生物体体型的生物与非生物因子，目前尚不清楚此类实验室实验的结果能否在自然生态系统中复现。
2. 本研究依托跨度为30至100年的多组数据集，探究野外采集甲虫的体型是否随时间发生改变，以及体型变化是否与气温升高存在相关性；同时以针对22种甲虫温度响应的实验室研究开展的定量综述所推导出的预测结论为框架，对研究结果进行阐释。
3. 研究结果显示，95%的实验室饲养甲虫在饲养温度升高时体型出现缩减，且体型较大的甲虫物种相比体型较小的物种，其体型缩减幅度更为显著。此外，博物馆标本数据集表明，该区域内体型较大的甲虫物种随时间推移体型出现下降；甲虫的平均体型可解释大部分甲虫类群对温度响应的种间变异，而该区域甲虫体型的长期变化可由秋季气温升高与春季气温降低所解释。
4. 本研究数据证实，野外采集甲虫的体型与温度之间的关联与实验室研究结果的吻合度较高，且该关联的变异在很大程度上可由甲虫平均体型的种间差异所解释。
5. 这份长期甲虫数据集是目前已汇编的最为全面的节肢动物体型数据集之一，其优化了关于全球气候变化下生物体体型缩减的相关预测；结合元分析（meta-analysis）数据，该研究还提出了可用于解释为何体型较大的生物体对温度变化更为敏感的全新假说。