Integrating water balance mechanisms into predictions of insect responses to climate change

Author:

Sinclair Brent J.1ORCID,Saruhashi Stefane1,Terblanche John S.2ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Western University 1 Department of Biology , , London, ON , Canada N6A 5B7

2. Stellenbosch University 2 Department of Conservation Ecology & Entomology, Faculty of AgriSciences , , Matieland 7602 , South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT Efficient water balance is key to insect success. However, the hygric environment is changing with climate change; although there are compelling models of thermal vulnerability, water balance is often neglected in predictions. Insects survive desiccating conditions by reducing water loss, increasing their total amount of water (and replenishing it) and increasing their tolerance of dehydration. The physiology underlying these traits is reasonably well understood, as are the sources of variation and phenotypic plasticity. However, water balance and thermal tolerance intersect at high temperatures, such that mortality is sometimes determined by dehydration, rather than heat (especially during long exposures in dry conditions). Furthermore, water balance and thermal tolerance sometimes interact to determine survival. In this Commentary, we propose identifying a threshold where the cause of mortality shifts between dehydration and temperature, and that it should be possible to predict this threshold from trait measurements (and perhaps eventually a priori from physiological or -omic markers).

Funder

Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada

National Research Foundation

Publisher

The Company of Biologists

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