Looking for answers to questions about heat stress: researchers are getting warmer

Abstract

While the public continues to debate the reality of global warming, scientists should prepare to deal with the consequences of this very real phenomenon. Our planet has warmed by 0·13 ° C per decade since 1956, and will likely warm more rapidly in the decades to come (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007). This global measure of thermal change belies the more pronounced and less predictable changes that are occurring on smaller scales (Walther et al . 2002). For example, the greater frequency and intensity of heat waves in many areas ranks among the more threatening aspects of anthropogenic climate change. Will acclimation or adaptation enable the persistence of populations that face such thermal stresses? And, if populations do persist, will their densities and compositions change radically? To answer these questions, we must understand a suite of phenomena, ranging from the mechanistic basis of thermotolerance to the demographic and ecological consequences of thermal plasticity (Angilletta 2009). This issue of Functional Ecology contains four papers that improve our understanding of these phenomena. To enhance your appreciation of this collection, I briefly highlight the significance of each paper while laying out the broader issues concerning the biological impacts of heat stress. During rapid warming, the performance of an organism depends on its capacity to protect and modify its cellular structures. Brief exposure to extreme heat often causes greater thermotolerance within hours, a phenomenon referred to as