Body size determines the thermal coupling between insects and plant surfaces

1. Most studies in global change biology predict biological impacts of warming from information on macroclimates. Most organisms, however, live in microhabitats with physical conditions which are decoupled to varying degrees from those in macroclimates depending partly on organism body size.

2. Small ectotherms of a few millimetres in length live deep in surface boundary layers such that their heat budgets are dominated by different processes compared to larger ectotherms, whose bodies emerge from surface boundary layers. We therefore hypothesized that the body size relative to surface boundary layer thickness generates different patterns of body temperature variation for organisms in the same nominal habitats.

3. We tested this hypothesis in a community of arthropods living on a subalpine plant by combining physical models to acquire high-resolution time series of operative temperatures, thermal imaging to assess the strength of coupling between physical models or arthropod bodie...

1. 全球变化生物学（global change biology）领域的多数研究均依托大气候（macroclimate）数据，预测气候变暖对生物产生的影响。然而，绝大多数生物实际栖息于微生境（microhabitat）中，其物理环境与大气候的解耦程度存在差异，而该差异在一定程度上由生物的体型大小决定。
2. 体长仅数毫米的小型变温动物（ectotherm）栖息于地表边界层（surface boundary layer）深处，其热量收支（heat budget）的调控过程与体型更大的变温动物截然不同——后者的躯体可脱离地表边界层。据此，我们提出假说：体型与地表边界层厚度的相对比例，会使同一名义生境中的不同生物呈现出各异的体温变化模式。
3. 我们依托栖息于亚高山植物上的节肢动物（arthropod）群落对该假说进行验证：通过物理模型获取操作温度（operative temperature）的高分辨率时间序列，并结合热成像技术评估物理模型与节肢动物躯体间的耦合强度……