title: Individual and demographic consequences of reduced body condition following repeated exposure to high temperatures.
abstract: Although the lethal consequences of extreme heat are increasingly reported in the literature, the fitness costs of exposure to sublethal high air temperatures, typically identified in the 30-40 degrees C range, are poorly understood. We examine the effect of high (> or = 35 degrees C) daily maxima on body condition of a semiarid population of White-plumed Honeyeaters, Ptilotula penicillatus, monitored between 1986 and 2012. During this 26-yr period, temperature has risen, on average, by 0.06 degrees C each year at the site, the frequency of days with thermal maxima > or = 35 degrees C has increased and rainfall has declined. Exposure to high temperatures affected body condition of White-plumed Honeyeaters, but only in low-rainfall conditions. There was no effect of a single day of exposure to temperatures > or = 35 degrees C but repeated exposure was associated with reduced body condition: 3.0% reduction in body mass per day of exposure. Rainfall in the previous 30 d ameliorated these effects, with reduced condition evident only in dry conditions. Heat-exposed males with reduced body condition were less likely to be recaptured at the start of the following spring; they presumably died. Heat-exposed females, regardless of body condition, showed lower survival than exposed males, possibly due to their smaller body mass. The higher mortality of females and smaller males exposed to temperatures > or = 35 degrees C may have contributed to the increase in mean body size of this population over 23 years. Annual survival declined across time concomitant with increasing frequency of days > or = 35 degrees C and decreasing rainfall. Our study is one of few to identify a proximate cause of climate change related mortality, and associated long-term demographic consequence. Our results have broad implications for avian communities living in arid and semiarid regions of Australia, and other mid-latitudes regions where daily maximum temperatures already approach physiological limits in regions affected by both decreased precipitation and warming.
authors.forename: Janet L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Amano
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Sutherland
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Clayton
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peters
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology*; D001823:Body Composition / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D005260:Female; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008297:Male; D010936:Plant Extracts; D012737:Sex Factors; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: C402832:Lo 701; D010936:Plant Extracts