Acclimation Capacity Underlies Susceptibility to Climate Change

Recent reports have presented meta-analyses of global biological impacts of climate change. However, there is debate as to the level of confidence ascribed to the certainty that global climate change has caused the observed biological changes. Two important considerations in the assessment of how climate change will impact organisms are (i) how close organisms are to their thermal limits in nature and (ii) an understanding of how organisms respond to increasing habitat temperatures, especially the degree to which organisms are able to adjust, or acclimatize, their thermal sensitivity.  Here, I report the effects of thermal acclimation on thermal limits of cardiac function in four congeneric species of marine invertebrates (Porcelain crabs, genus Petrolisthes) from different thermal habitats.