Opportunities for behavioral rescue under rapid environmental change

Laboratory measurements of physiological and demographic tolerances are important in understanding the impact of climate change on species diversity; however, it has been recognized that forecasts based solely on these laboratory estimates overestimate risk by omitting the capacity for species to utilize microclimatic variation via behavioral adjustments in activity patterns or habitat choice. The complex, and often context‐dependent nature, of microclimate utilization has been an impediment to the advancement of general predictive models. Here, we overcome this impediment and estimate the potential impact of warming on the fitness of ectotherms using a benefit/cost trade‐off derived from the simple and broadly documented thermal performance curve and a generalized cost function. Our framework reveals that, for certain environments, the cost of behavioral thermoregulation can be reduced as warming occurs, enabling behavioral buffering (e.g., the capacity for behavior to ameliorate detrimental impacts) and “behavioral rescue” from extinction in extreme cases. By applying our framework to operative temperature and physiological data collected at an extremely fine spatial scale in an African lizard, we show that new behavioral opportunities may emerge. Finally, we explore large‐scale geographic differences in the impact of behavior on climate‐impact projections using a global dataset of 38 insect species. These multiple lines of inference indicate that understanding the existing relationship between thermal characteristics (e.g., spatial configuration, spatial heterogeneity, and modal temperature) is essential for improving estimates of extinction risk

L\u27influenza della parlata locale degli abitanti dell\u27 isola di Vis sulla\u27 acquisizione dell\u27 italiano come lingua straniera

The paper contributes to the study and the preservation of local idioms of Komiža and Vis as well as to the study of the influence of Romance languages on their lexicon. In order to protect the local language heritage, empirical research was conducted among primary school students who, by means of questionnaires, indicated the extent to which they are aware of the cultural affiliation and knowledge of their native local idiom in the context of the pedagogical process. Students were asked to express their attitude toward their local speech and the potential awareness of interlingual similarities between their local idiom and Italian language on the lexical level. A translation of a short text from Italian into the local idiom was also used in order to identify Romance loanwords that build up the repertoire of everyday words used by the young population. The research also included semi-structured interviews with local teachers of Croatian and Italian who declared the presence of local idiom in the teaching process. Whether teachers in local schools on the island of Vis have the tendency to use contrastive analysis as a teaching method and whether they integrate dialectal contents into additional materials and activities was also examined. The results of the research testify to the amount of preservation and usability of the local idioms of Vis within the educational process. Furthermore, they spur the awareness of the need to use the interlingual similarities at lexical level between local idioms of Vis and Italian as the target language for didactic purposes.U radu se prezentiraju stavovi učenika osnovnih škola u Visu i Komiži prema njihovu lokalnome govoru, prema talijanskome kao stranome jeziku, razmatraju se umijeće i sposobnost učenika u uočavanju sličnosti između lokalnoga idioma i talijanskoga jezika te se ispituje kontekst uporabe lokalnoga govora te primjena kontrastivne analize u sklopu metodologije poučavanja talijanskoga kao stranoga jezika. Istraživanje u kojemu su korišteni upitnik za četrdesetak učenika, zadatak prijevoda teksta te intervju s nastavnicama pridonosi osvješćivanju potrebe za korištenjem međujezičnih sličnosti na leksičkoj razini između lokalnih govora otoka Visa i talijanskoga jezika kao ciljnoga jezika u didaktičke svrhe. Implementacija rezultata u nastavu i didaktičke materijale može pridonijeti motivaciji učenika, stvaranju osjećaja bliskosti s talijanskim jezikom i kulturom, olakšanomu razumijevanju te u konačnici razvoju leksičke sastavnice jezične kompetencije na talijanskomu kao stranome jeziku te buđenju interesa i sklonosti prema lokalnome idiomu.Nel lavoro si presentano le opinioni degli alunni delle scuole primarie di Vis e Komiža riguardo alla loro parlata locale e riguardo all’italiano come lingua straniera, si considerano la competenza e l’abilità degli alunni nel riconoscere le somiglianze tra l’idioma locale e la lingua italiana e si indaga il contesto d’uso della parlata locale e l’applicazione dell’analisi contrastiva nel contesto metodologico dell’insegnamento dell’italiano come lingua straniera. La ricerca nel corso della quale sono stati proposti un questionario per quaranta alunni, un esercizio di traduzione di un testo e un intervista agli insegnanti contribuisce a rendere consapevoli gli insegnanti della necessità di sfruttare le somiglianze interlinguistiche a livello lessicale tra le parlate locali dell’isola di Vis e la lingua italiana come lingua d’arrivo a scopo didattico. L’implementazione dei risultati nell’insegnamento e nei materiali didattici può contribuire alla motivazione degli alunni, alla creazione di un sentimento di vicinanza con la lingua e la cultura italiane, alla facilitazione della comprensione e in ultima analisi allo sviluppo della componente lessicale della competenza linguistica in italiano come lingua straniera nonché al risveglio dell’ interesse e dell’affinità per la parlata locale

Mismatches between phenotype andenvironment shape fitness at hyperlocalscales

In the era of human-driven climate change, understanding whether behavioural buffering of temperature change is linked with organismal fitness is essential. According to the ‘cost–benefit’ model of thermoregulation, animals that live in environments with high frequencies of favourable thermal microclimates should incur lower thermoregulatory costs, thermoregulate more efficiently and shunt the associated savings in time and energy towards other vital tasks such as feeding, territory defence and mate acquisition, increasing fitness. Here, we explore how thermal landscapes at the scale of individual territories, physiological performance and behaviour interact and shape fitness in the southern rock agama lizard (Agama atra). We integrated laboratory assays of whole organism performance with behavioural observations in the field, fine-scale estimates of environmental temperature, and paternity assignment of offspring to test whether fitness is predicted by territory thermal quality (i.e. the number of hours that operative temperatures in a territory fall within an individual's performance breadth). Male lizards that occupied territories of low thermal quality spent more time behaviourally compensating for sub-optimal temperatures and displayed less. Further, display rate was positively associated with lizard fitness, suggesting that there is an opportunity cost to engaging in thermoregulatory behaviour that will change as climate change progresses.This research was financially and logistically supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (CPRR no. 98880). K.A. was supported by the NRF Doctoral Scholarship for Full-time Studies. M.L.L. was supported by a United States National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology (award number DBI-1402497). S.T. received funding from grant PID2020-117115GA-100 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by Ramón y Cajal grant RYC2021-03152-I, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR.Peer reviewe

Opportunities for behavioral rescue under rapid environmental change

Laboratory measurements of physiological and demographic tolerances are important in understanding the impact of climate change on species diversity; however, it has been recognized that forecasts based solely on these laboratory estimates overestimate risk by omitting the capacity for species to utilize microclimatic variation via behavioral adjustments in activity patterns or habitat choice. The complex, and often context‐dependent nature, of microclimate utilization has been an impediment to the advancement of general predictive models. Here, we overcome this impediment and estimate the potential impact of warming on the fitness of ectotherms using a benefit/cost trade‐off derived from the simple and broadly documented thermal performance curve and a generalized cost function. Our framework reveals that, for certain environments, the cost of behavioral thermoregulation can be reduced as warming occurs, enabling behavioral buffering (e.g., the capacity for behavior to ameliorate detrimental impacts) and “behavioral rescue” from extinction in extreme cases. By applying our framework to operative temperature and physiological data collected at an extremely fine spatial scale in an African lizard, we show that new behavioral opportunities may emerge. Finally, we explore large‐scale geographic differences in the impact of behavior on climate‐impact projections using a global dataset of 38 insect species. These multiple lines of inference indicate that understanding the existing relationship between thermal characteristics (e.g., spatial configuration, spatial heterogeneity, and modal temperature) is essential for improving estimates of extinction risk

Opportunities for behavioral rescue under rapid environmental change

Laboratory measurements of physiological and demographic tolerances are important in understanding the impact of climate change on species diversity; however, it has been recognized that forecasts based solely on these laboratory estimates overestimate risk by omitting the capacity for species to utilize microclimatic variation via behavioral adjustments in activity patterns or habitat choice. The complex, and often context‐dependent nature, of microclimate utilization has been an impediment to the advancement of general predictive models. Here, we overcome this impediment and estimate the potential impact of warming on the fitness of ectotherms using a benefit/cost trade‐off derived from the simple and broadly documented thermal performance curve and a generalized cost function. Our framework reveals that, for certain environments, the cost of behavioral thermoregulation can be reduced as warming occurs, enabling behavioral buffering (e.g., the capacity for behavior to ameliorate detrimental impacts) and “behavioral rescue” from extinction in extreme cases. By applying our framework to operative temperature and physiological data collected at an extremely fine spatial scale in an African lizard, we show that new behavioral opportunities may emerge. Finally, we explore large‐scale geographic differences in the impact of behavior on climate‐impact projections using a global dataset of 38 insect species. These multiple lines of inference indicate that understanding the existing relationship between thermal characteristics (e.g., spatial configuration, spatial heterogeneity, and modal temperature) is essential for improving estimates of extinction risk

3D printed models are an accurate, cost-effective, and reproducible tool for quantifying terrestrial thermal environments

Dataset used in Alujević et al. 2023. 3D printed models are an accurate, cost-effective, and reproducible tool for quantifying terrestrial thermal environments