I’m hot blooded, check it and see, I got a fever of a hundred and three, I’m hot blooded...
As a "hot-blooded" mammal, I don’t rely on external temperatures; cold-blooded fish, amphibians, insects and reptiles, however, rely on specific temperatures in their environments to function. Many animals that have adapted to colder climates depend on certain cool temperatures to hunt, mate and reproduce.
Although it would seem that the challenge for cold-blooded animals is to keep warm, it is actually more vital and difficult to stay cool. With warmer temperatures, cold-blooded animals will have to devote more energy to keeping their bodies cool.
"What we've found is that for a large fraction of the planet's animals their main priority is to thermoregulate to stay cool," said Michael Kearney, of the University of Melbourne's Department of Zoology, in an article written for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Global warming is going to make keeping cool harder."
In higher temperatures, cold-blooded animals have to devote more energy to respiration because their oxygen needs are increased. This means less energy is left over for feeding, growth, reproduction and immune response. This is especially scary for marine life, where warmer temperatures actually means less oxygen in the water.
According to Kearney and his fellow researchers, the effects of global warming could change behavior patterns of cold-blooded animals, including feeding and reproduction, which would have an impact on the whole ecosystem.
Global warming actually poses quite a threat to cold-blooded animals. For species that rely so heavily on external environmental conditions, even a small change can upset their normal existence. This is true for both terrestrial and marine animals. To top it off, a recent study of cold-blooded animals has shown that species live longer in cooler climates, pointing out the threat of global warming to cold-blooded animals’ life spans.
The study, which looked at over 90 different species, consistently found that average life span was directly correlated to temperature. For example, of animals of the same species living in warmer and colder climates, the animals in the colder climates had much longer average life spans. The researchers noted that with global warming, cold-blooded species must significantly adapt to warmer temperatures in order for the species to survive.
Nature is sustained through a complex and delicate balance. When we upset that balance, nature can no longer function normally. The millions of species that inhabit this earth are all finely tuned to respond to a number of specific environmental cues. For cold-blooded animals, temperature is a huge environmental cue.
Take cold-water fish like trout or salmon. The species has developed to thrive in cold water, and depend on those temperatures. Warmer waters means a loss of habitat for the trout. Trout and salmon both spawn in frigid water because nature has adapted them that way. Warming temperatures pose a huge threat to the future of these species.
Sea turtles are another threatened species. Rising sea levels means an erosion of beaches where the turtles can lay their eggs. Furthermore, sea turtles' sex depends on the temperature during incubation of the eggs. If temperatures continue to warm, even as much as one degree Celcius, no male sea turtles will be born.
And these are just two examples. The majority of the planet's species are cold-blooded creatures. If global warming poses such a threat to such a large portion of the ecosystem, what will happen to the rest of us?
Source: BecauseAction.com
