Vulnerability of amphibians to global warming

• DOI: 10.32942/x2t02t
• Publication Date: 2024-01-11T04:15:36Z
• Authors: Patrice Pottier; Michael Kearney; Nicholas Wu; Alex Gunderson; Julie Rej; A. Nayelli Rivera...; Pietro Pollo; Samantha Burke; Szymon Drobniak; Shinichi Nakagawa
• Keywords: Overheating (electricity); Ectotherm; Microclimate

Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrates, yet their resilience to rising temperatures remains poorly understood. This is primarily because knowledge of thermal tolerance taxonomically and geographically biased, compromising global climate vulnerability assessments. Here, we employed a novel data imputation approach predict heat 60% amphibian species assessed daily temperature variation in refugia. We found 198 out 5203 currently exposed overheating events shaded terrestrial conditions. Despite accounting for plasticity, 4°C increase would create step-change impact severity, pushing 9.4% beyond physiological limits. In Southern Hemisphere, tropical encounter disproportionally more events, while Northern non-tropical susceptible. Our findings challenge evidence latitudinal gradients risk underscore importance considering climatic variability Notably, our conservative estimates assume access microenvironments, implying that warming’s impacts on amphibians may exceed projections. microclimate-explicit analyses also demonstrate how availability vegetation water bodies critical buffering during waves. Immediate action needed preserve manage these microhabitat features.