Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

CLIMATE CHANGE

The Goldilocks zone of animal development

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 4, pages 290–291 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

A new model suggests that energetic costs of development are minimized within narrow ranges of temperature. Temperatures below an optimum raise costs by extending development times more than metabolic rates are depressed, whereas temperatures above the optimum cause development rates to stall even as metabolic rates rise.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: The energetic costs of development depend on two interacting processes, both of which are strongly affected by temperature.

References

  1. Shilling, F. M., Hoegh-Guldberg, O. & Manahan, D. T. Biol. Bull. 191, 402–412 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Marshall, D. J., Pettersen, A. K., Bode, M. & White, C. R. Nat. Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1114-9 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Woods, H. A. Am. Zool. 39, 244–252 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Verberk, W. C., Bilton, D. T., Calosi, P. & Spicer, J. I. Ecology 92, 1565–1572 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Deutsch, C., Ferrel, A., Seibel, B., Pörtner, H. O. & Huey, R. B. Science 348, 1132–1135 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Pörtner, H. O., Bock, C. & Mark, F. C. J. Exp. Biol. 220, 2685–2696 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Von Bertalanffy, L. Hum. Biol. 10, 181–213 (1938).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Pettersen, A. K., White, C. R., Bryson-Richardson, R. J. & Marshall, D. J. Ecol. Lett. 22, 518–526 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Pörtner, H.-O. et al. in IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (eds Pörtner, H.-O. et al.) 37–70 (IPCC, 2019).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA

    H. Arthur Woods

Authors
  1. H. Arthur Woods
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. Arthur Woods.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Woods, H.A. The Goldilocks zone of animal development. Nat Ecol Evol 4, 290–291 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1148-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1148-z

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing