Thermal ecology and baseline energetic requirements of a large-bodied ectotherm suggest resilience to climate change

Most studies on how rising temperatures will impact terrestrial ectotherms have focused on single populations or multiple sympatric species. Addressing the thermal and energetic implications of climatic variation on multiple allopatric populations of a species will help us better elucidate how a species may be impacted by altered climates. We used eight years of thermal and behavioral data collected from four populations of Pacific rattlesnakes (Crotalus oreganus) living in climatically distinct habitat types (inland and coastal) to determine the field-active and lab-preferred body temperatures, thermoregulatory metrics, and maintenance energetic requirements of snakes from each population. Physical models showed that thermal quality was best at coastal sites, but inland snakes thermoregulated more accurately despite being in more thermally constrained environments. Projected increases of 1 and 2 ºC in ambient temperature result in an increase in overall thermal quality at both coastal ...