"Global warming could cook tropical insects, with unpredictable knock-on effects, say researchers who warn that rising temperatures also threaten tropical frogs, lizards and turtles.
Temperatures are expected to increase much faster in temperate and polar regions than in the tropics. But no-one had looked at how warming would affect insects and other cold-blooded animals that had evolved in tropical regions with little temperature variation.
Curtis Deutsch at the University of California at Los Angeles and colleagues analysed data on insect survival and reproduction for 38 species in different ecosystems, and then estimated how these values would change with predictions of climate change for the 21st century.
The team found that the reproductive rate of tropical insects tends to peak very close to the temperatures where they normally live, but drops sharply at higher temperatures. This means that cranking up the heat only a small amount can exert a heavy toll, leaving insects unable to reproduce fast enough to keep up their numbers."
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