How butterflies keep their cool: physical and ecological traits influence thermoregulatory ability and population trends.

Understanding which factors influence the ability of individuals to respond to changing temperatures is fundamental to species conservation under climate change.

We investigated how a community of butterflies responded to fine-scale changes in air temperature, and whether species-specific responses were predicted by ecological or morphological traits.

Using data collected across a UK reserve network, we investigated the ability of 29 butterfly species to buffer thoracic temperature against changes in air temperature. First, we tested whether differences were attributable to taxonomic family, morphology or habitat association. We then investigated the relative importance of two buffering mechanisms: behavioural thermoregulation versus fine-scale microclimate selection. Finally, we tested whether species’ responses to changing temperatures predicted their population trends from a UK-wide dataset.

We found significant interspecific variation in buffering ability, which varied betw...

厘清影响个体响应温度变化能力的关键因素，是气候变化背景下物种保护的核心基础工作。
本研究以蝴蝶群落为研究对象，探究其对小尺度气温变化的响应模式，并验证物种特异性的响应特征是否可通过生态或形态学特征进行预测。
本研究依托英国保护区网络采集的实测数据，针对29种蝴蝶缓冲胸温（thoracic temperature）以抵消气温变化影响的能力开展系统探究。首先，我们检验了该能力的种间差异是否可归因于分类科、形态特征或生境关联；其次，我们分析了两种体温缓冲机制的相对重要性：行为体温调节（behavioural thermoregulation）与小尺度微气候选择；最后，我们基于英国全境的种群监测数据集，验证了物种对温度变化的响应是否能够预测其种群动态趋势。
本研究发现，不同蝴蝶物种的体温缓冲能力存在显著的种间差异，其变化在……