Environmental drivers of body size in North American bats

Abstract

AbstractBergmann’s Rule—which posits that larger animals live in colder areas—is thought to influence variation in body size within species across space and time, but evidence for this claim is mixed. We tested four competing hypotheses for spatio-temporal variation in body size within bat species during the past two decades across North America. Bayesian hierarchical models revealed that spatial variation in body mass was most strongly (and negatively) correlated with mean annual temperature, supporting the heat conservation hypothesis (historically believed to underlie Bergmann’s Rule). Across time, variation in body mass was most strongly (and positively) correlated with net primary productivity, supporting the resource availability hypothesis. Climate change could influence body size in animals through both changes in mean annual temperature and in resource availability. Rapid reductions in body size associated with increasing temperatures have occurred in short-lived, fecund species, but such reductions likely transpire more slowly in longer-lived species.