PloS ONE 6, e29657 (2011)
The poleward expansion of plants and animals is a widely observed response to climate change. However, despite a tendency towards warmer and milder conditions, climate change is not expected to eliminate periodic cold events, yet their effect on species range expansion is rarely considered.
João Canning-Clode, from the University of the Azores, and co-authors investigated the effect of cold events on the green porcelain crab, which is one of the Caribbean 'invaders' that are now found on the southern and mid-Atlantic coasts of the United States — a phenomenon known as 'Caribbean creep'.
They found that the crabs could not tolerate exposure to temperatures that mimic unusual and severe cold spells on the southern and mid-Atlantic US coasts. As a result the authors suggest that occasional cold winters may be a critical reset mechanism that will limit the range expansion of other 'Caribbean creep' species.
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Brown, A. Invasive species chill out. Nature Clim Change 2, 75 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1404
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1404