Journal Article

Physiologically vulnerable or resilient? Tropical birds, global warming, and redistributions

Monge, Otto, Maggini, Ivan, Dullinger, Stefan, Fusani, Leonida, Schulze, Christian H.

2023

Overview

Tropical species are considered to be more threatened by climate change than those of other world regions. This increased sensitivity to warming is thought to stem from the assumptions of low physiological capacity to withstand temperature fluctuations and already living near their limits of heat tolerance under current climatic conditions. For birds, despite thorough documentation of community‐level rearrangements, such as biotic attrition and elevational shifts, there is no consistent evidence of direct physiological sensitivity to warming. In this review, we provide an integrative outlook into the physiological response of tropical birds to thermal variation and their capacity to cope with warming. In short, evidence from the literature suggests that the assumed physiological sensitivity to warming attributed to tropical biotas does not seem to be a fundamental characteristic of tropical birds. Tropical birds do possess the physiological capacities to deal with fluctuating temperatures, including high‐elevation species, and are prepared to withstand elevated levels of heat, even those living in hot and arid environments. However, there are still many unaddressed points that hinder a more complete understanding of the response of tropical birds to warming, such as cooling capacities when exposed to combined gradients of heat and humidity, the response of montane species to heat, and thermoregulation under increased levels of microclimatic stress in disturbed ecosystems. Further research into how populations and species from different ecological contexts handle warming will increase our understanding of current and future community rearrangements in tropical birds. Emprirical data from the literature show that tropical birds are not characterized by narrow thermal tolerance and may not be physiologically threatened by global warming in the short term.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc,John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subject: anthropocene / Arid environments / Arid zones / Biodiversity Ecology / Biogeography / bird conservation / Birds / Body temperature / Climate change / Climatic conditions / Cold / Community Ecology / Conservation Ecology / Ecophysiology / Fever / Global Change Ecology / Global warming / Heat / Heat tolerance / Hyperthermia / Metabolism / Physiology / Review / Sensitivity / Temperature tolerance / thermal stress / Thermoregulation