Open habitats increase vulnerability of amphibian tadpoles to climate warming across latitude

Abstract

AbstractAimGlobal warming and deforestation are pushing species closer to their physiological limit, especially for species with habitat‐restricted life stages because sunlit areas have higher maximum temperatures. Here, we examined the critical thermal maximum (CTmax), and maximum environmental water temperature (Tmax) of larvae from 29 anuran species across a latitudinal gradient (22–43° N) to test how latitude and habitat type (open or closed‐forest ponds) affected warming tolerance, an index of vulnerability to climate change.LocationTaiwan, Korea, Japan.Time periodPresent.Major taxa studiedAnurans.ResultsWe showed that open ponds lowered warming tolerance, regardless of latitude and phylogenetic clustering, contrasting the established literature that warming tolerance is lower at tropical latitudes, which only applied to species in forest ponds in this study. Importantly, biophysical models at the local scale suggest that increasing deforestation will exacerbate the effects of climate warming on warming tolerance.Main conclusionsLocal effects of accelerated warming and habitat modification mean that species with range‐restricted life stages will become more vulnerable to anthropogenic change.