Global Change Biology Assessment 1 - Scott Morrison

1.)    With global climate change increasing the planet’s overall temperature, ectothermic species such as reptiles may suffer greatly as this can affect adolescent development such a sea turtles where the temperature of the clutch can determine the sex of an individual (Standora & Spotila, 1985) or unique, striking colouration to absorb more heat in amphibians can cause hyperthermia (Rudh & Qvarnström, 2013.)This then progressed to researching the current temperature limits on reptilian egg clutches as how would a species continue if the young cannot handle the climate while they incubate.

2.)    Search protocol involved searching generally studies that also asked similar questions about the future for reptiles. Primarily I used the terms “thermal tolerance” and “temperature on embryonic development”.

3.)    References

Carilo Filho, L.M. et al. (2022) ‘There and back again: A meta-analytical approach on the influence of acclimation and altitude in the upper thermal tolerance of amphibians and reptiles’, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 10. doi:10.3389/fevo.2022.1017255.

Hall, J.M. and Sun, B. (2020) ‘Heat tolerance of reptile embryos: Current knowledge, methodological considerations, and Future Directions’, Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology, 335(1), pp. 45–58. doi:10.1002/jez.2402.

Refsnider, J.M., Clifton, I.T. and Vazquez, T.K. (2019) ‘Developmental plasticity of thermal ecology traits in reptiles: Trends, potential benefits, and research needs’, Journal of Thermal Biology, 84, pp. 74–82. doi:10.1016/j.jtherbio.2019.06.005.

Rudh, A. and Qvarnström, A. (2013) ‘Adaptive colouration in amphibians’, Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology, 24(6–7), pp. 553–561. doi:10.1016/j.semcdb.2013.05.004.

Standora, E.A. and Spotila, J.R. (1985) ‘Temperature dependent sex determination in sea turtles’, Copeia, 1985(3), p. 711. doi:10.2307/1444765.