Insects and crabs belong to a group of cold-blooded animals called arthropods. Researchers have found that this particular group of animals have a tendency to grow bigger when they are on warm patches of land compared to when they live on warm waters.
In a study published in the journal Ecology Letters, researchers from the University of Liverpool and the Queen Mary University of London gathered data from around the world and analyzed the information they had in order to create the best picture possible of how arthropods change body sizes when latitude and temperature are factored in.
According to their findings, body size sensitivity in arthropods as affected by temperature and measured in laboratory settings closely matched trends in body size typically observed in nature.
"These patterns support the prediction that oxygen limitation is a major controlling factor in water, but not in air," explained the researchers.
These results could have a significant impact in analyzing the effects of climate change on animals as warming-induced changes in body size could have repercussions on the health of an animal and affect economically and ecologically important ecosystems.
Curtis Horne, lead author for the study, said that improving understanding on what influences growth in animals will lead to the beginning of better predictions on how different groups of species are affected by climate change and what they are doing to cope.
"We see a really close match between lab experiments and patterns observed in nature, which suggests that the same factors are at play. It brings us a significant step closer to solving a problem that has long puzzled biologists," he added.
David Atkinson and Andrew Hirst also contributed to the study.
Climate change has been a growing concern because not only is it altering the weather, but it is also leading to changes affecting plants and animals on a wide scale. Ocean animals, for instance, are finding themselves swimming deeper to find food since smaller species take to darker waters to escape the warmer areas on top. Birds are also migrating sooner to catch the earlier arrival of spring.
Some of the species most affected by climate change, according to a report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, include the orange-spotted filefish, quiver tree, polar bear, Adélie penguin, North Atlantic cod and Acropora cervicornis (a reef-building animal). The extinction of the golden toad is also attributed to climate change.
