Hot off the press! Check out our new paper in Functional Ecology: Warming undermines emergence success in a threatened alpine stonefly: A multi‐trait perspective on vulnerability to climate change

A team of collaborators and I have published a paper looking at the long-term effects of chronic warming on several fitness-related traits of glacial meltwater stoneflies. Our results reveal two important aspects of the biology of high-elevation aquatic insects. First, larvae (nymphs) are sensitive to temperatures only slightly higher than those they currently experience.

 Second, although they can grow relatively quickly at warmer temperatures, they are unable to emerge successfully as adults at those same temperatures. Emergence may therefore be particularly sensitive to warming. Broadly, our results suggest that studies assessing vulnerability to climate change should go beyond measuring one or two response variables to more comprehensive analyses across multiple fitness-related traits.

Take a look at our paper out in Early View in Functional Ecology. 
Photo from Giersch et al. 2017 Global Change Biology