Metabolism Predicts Ecological Response to Warming 英文参考文献.docVIP

Synopsis MetabolismPredictsEcologicalResponsetoWarming LizaGross* SeniorScienceWriter/Editor,PLoSBiology,PublicLibraryofScience,SanFrancisco,California,UnitedStatesofAmerica While politicians like United States Representative Michele Bachmann (R- Minn.) rail against efforts to curb human contributions to global warming—she thinks carbon dioxide, a ‘‘natural by- product of nature,’’ couldnot possibly be harmful—scientists are documenting the damage. Numerous studies describe how climate change is threatening the persis- tenceofabroadrangeofplantandanimal species across diverse taxa, geographic regions,andtrophiclevels,fromthepolar bear at the top of the food chain to the shrimp-likekrillatthebottom. Astheycatalogtheecologicalcasualties of a rapidly warming world, researchers are also searching for general effects of climate change to help them predict and mitigateitsconsequences.Thesearchhas not been easy. Many of the documented impacts reflect species’ life history—upset synchronybetweenthepeakfoodneedsof newly hatched birds and the peak avail- ability of their traditional insect diet, for example—marked by idiosyncrasies that defy generalization. What’s more, field studies have yielded conflicting results, with warming causing significant effects on food webs in some regions but not in others.Complicatingmatters,experiments thattesthowtemperatureaffectsfoodweb dynamics—an approach that would help validate general predictions—are rarely done. To test the effects of temperature on food web structure and productivity, Mary O’Connor(above,checkingtemperatures)andcolleaguesplacedfivemicrocosmsof food webs (shielded from full sunlight and UV) in eight independent water tables, eachfilledwithatemperature-conditionedwaterbath. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000180.g001 Understandinghowclimatechangewill affect ocean communities is especially important, not only because the seas account for 16% of the protein humans consume but also because they play a major role in the g