作者
Felix Landry Yuan
发表日期
2016
期刊
HKU Theses Online (HKUTO)
出版商
The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong)
简介
Consequences of climate change in ectotherms, such as extinctions and range shifts, vary in magnitude according to thermal physiology and local environments. Generally, greater thermal heterogeneity in space and time is believed to confer better resilience to these impacts. However, the relationship between environmental variability and physiology can vary depending on the scope of a given spatial scale. Accordingly, the central objective in this thesis is to test this hypothesis in Scincidae lizards at two habitat scales. I employed sprint speed to model thermal performance curves, quantifying thermal physiology for comparisons across habitats. I then estimated their current thermal suitability as potential activity time and applied warming scenarios to determine if the lizards from less thermally heterogeneous habitats might be more vulnerable to climate change. I found support for the hypothesis in the second, broader scaled study presented in this thesis, where I projected forest skinks to be vulnerable to climate change while the ecotone skinks would benefit. In the first study, I found that thermal environments were similar across habitats, concordant with my results showing equal thermal tolerance breadths. However, comparing thermal performance, I also found evidence that the forest skink species is more likely to eventually be at risk relative to the stream species. Therefore, based on these studies alone, thermal heterogeneity could be associated with greater resilience to climate change at the larger spatial scale, yet not necessarily at the smaller scale. Although I did not detect a straightforward and ubiquitous pattern, I applied a fundamental …
学术搜索中的文章
FL Yuan - HKU Theses Online (HKUTO), 2016