Honey, we shrank the copepods...

摘要

REDUCING their body size over the generations is known to help take the heat off animals struggling to adapt to global warming. Now, clues to how animals adapt have emerged from the growth patterns of tiny crustaceans. It is well established that cold-blooded species get smaller as the climate heats up, says Andrew Hirst of Queen Mary, University of London -1 °C of warming reduces their adult body mass by H.5 per cent on average. Hirst pulled together data on 15 species of copepod, crustaceans that swim in the open sea, to find out how they grew at different temperatures. As the sea warmed. the copepods got heavier faster. Hirst thinks that is because physiological reactions accelerate at warmer temperatures, allowing the copepods to bulk up faster.