articleScienceJul 2, 2020Closed access

Thermal bottlenecks in the life cycle define climate vulnerability of fish

Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung · Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity · +1 more institution

PubMed
Indexed incrossrefpubmed

Abstract

Species' vulnerability to climate change depends on the most temperature-sensitive life stages, but for major animal groups such as fish, life cycle bottlenecks are often not clearly defined. We used observational, experimental, and phylogenetic data to assess stage-specific thermal tolerance metrics for 694 marine and freshwater fish species from all climate zones. Our analysis shows that spawning adults and embryos consistently have narrower tolerance ranges than larvae and nonreproductive adults and are most vulnerable to climate warming. The sequence of stage-specific thermal tolerance corresponds with the oxygen-limitation hypothesis, suggesting a mechanistic link between ontogenetic changes in…

No related works found for this paper.

Funding