title: Evolutionary and ecological patterns of thermal acclimation capacity in Drosophila: is it important for keeping up with climate change?
abstract: Phenotypic plasticity of temperature tolerance (thermal acclimation) is often highlighted as an important component of the acute and evolutionary adaptation to temperatures in insects. For this reason, it is often suggested that thermal acclimation ability could be important for buffering the consequences of climate change. Based on data from Drosophila we discuss if and how phenotypic plasticity is likely to mitigate the effects of climate change. We conclude that plasticity of upper thermal limits is small in magnitude, evolves slowly and that acclimation ability is weakly correlated with latitude and environmental heterogeneity. Accordingly plasticity in upper thermal limits is unlikely to effectively buffer effects of global warming for species already close to their upper thermal boundaries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioscience, Section for Genetics, Ecology and Evolution, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. Electronic address: jesper.soerensen@bios.au.dk.
authors.forename: Jesper Givskov
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section for Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Fredrik Bajers Vej 7H, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark.
authors.forename: Torsten Nygaard
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Kristensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioscience, Section for Zoophysiology, Aarhus University, C.F. Møllers Alle 3, Building 1131, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Overgaard
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D057231:Climate Change; D004330:Drosophila / Q000502:physiology*; D013696:Temperature