The impacts of global warming on animals and their response to climate warming

Abstract

This paper reviews on animals’ thermoregulations under climate change. There are aspects of animals’ thermoregulation that encompass behavior, physiology, and life history. Among these, behavioral thermoregulation is mostly studied and reported in the early years, which is usually about the strategic selection of optimal timing and locations, facilitating efficient evaporative and conduction heat dissipation, modifying their dietary preferences, and increasing shuttle behavior. The field of physiology involves hormonal regulation, such as secreting more glucocorticoids to achieve better balance control, changing body temperature to be more efficient in heat loss, energy allocation (e.g., metabolic rate) to select optimal strategy between growth and reproduction, and oxidative stress injury. In parallel, life history traits encompass rising growth rate, shrinking lifespan, changing body posture, and declining survival rate. Global warming is the main feature of climate change, with both of the average temperature rising and frequently heat waves occurring being the major characteristics simultaneously. Consequently, there come two scientific questions of this review: (1) What are the impacts of global warming on animals?(2) How do animals respond to climate change?