CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

We are currently experiencing a climate change process with unknown consequences for organisms. Ectotherms will be particularly affected dueto their dependance on environmental temperatures. Spiders are a surprisingly misrepresented in studies regarding such problematic,contrasting with their importance in ecological networks. In San Juan, Argentina one of the most abundant spiders is the orb weaver Metepeirasp. As other araneids, its natural history is deeply dependent on its web which results in reduced mobility from the microsite they occupy,making it more susceptible to environment fluctuations. To better understand the relationship between our study species and environmentaltemperatures we built a thermal niche model using NicheMapR package. This model includes empirically obtained physiological data, aswell as microclimatic variables to provide a detailed output of species body temperature through the year. Furthermore, we can visualize ifspiders are exposed beyond their physiological tolerance or experience restriction hours. We modeled populations from threephytogeographic regions: Monte de Sierras y Bolsones, Monte de Llanuras y Mesetas and Chacho Árido, each of which exhibited differencesin their physiological parameters. The models showed that M. sp. does not currently experience restriction hours due to high temperatures.Nevertheless, if temperature rises as predicted by IPCC (+3°C for 2100), it could be affected in the future, even reaching Critical thermalmaximum in Monte de Sierras y Bolsones and Chaco Árido. On the other hand, this species may experience restriction hours due to lowtemperatures in the extremes of their activity season (March and October), being more pronounced in Monte de Llanuras y Mesetas. Thesemodels are a useful tool to understand organisms thermal relations, but simulated data should be tested in the field to validate or adjust themodel.

enviar mensaje