1967 warning on tropical mountains trapping species confirmed by beetle study
The study was carried out in the Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) of Costa Rica, a UNESCO World Heritage Site A Natural Climate Laboratory A
The study was carried out in the Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) of Costa Rica, a UNESCO World Heritage Site A Natural Climate Laboratory A Theory That Has Weathered the Test of Time Beetles in the cool cloud forests had the lowest heat tolerance Different Elevations, Different Risks Scientists estimate that only around 1% of the rove beetle species on Volcán Cacao have formal scientific names Tiny Beetles, Big Climate Message any of the beetle species have yet to be formally named, so researchers used DNA barcoding to accurately identify them. Imagine yourself living on a mountaintop where the climate has been almost unchanged for thousands of years. Life evolves with amazing precision; generation after generation adjusts to cool, predictable temperatures. But then the world starts to warm. The mountain that was once a refuge slowly transforms into a trap, and its inhabitants are left with no cooler refuge.“This could happen,” warned renowned ecologist Daniel Janzen nearly six decades ago, states a report published by Phys Org. In a seminal paper in 1967, he argued that tropical mountain species, which are adapted to stable climates, would find it much harder to cope with rising temperatures than species from more variable environments.
It was a bold ecological theory in those days. Now scientists studying tiny rove beetles in Costa Rica have found compelling evidence that his prediction was eerily on target, nearly 60 years later. The new study, published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences (PNAS), sheds light on how climate change may be quietly threatening some of Earth's richest ecosystems—one insect at a time.The study was carried out in the Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) of Costa Rica, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its exceptional biodiversity.In just 1,500 metres of elevation, the landscape swings from hot tropical dry forest to lush rainforest to cool cloud forest.The steep environmental gradient enabled researchers to study over 100 species of rove beetles, one of the most diverse groups of insects on the planet, living at different elevations on Volcan Cacao. Scientists slowly heated beetles to determine how these insects deal with temperature — and what their upper limit of heat tolerance is. Two groups were put under cold conditions and their recovery rates from a cold-induced coma were measured. Many of the beetle species have yet to be formally named, so researchers used DNA barcoding to accurately identify them.In 1967 Daniel Janzen published a paper called “Why Mountain Passes Are Higher in the Tropics” and introduced a revolutionary idea to tropical ecology.
The BriefWire