Diminishing returns limit energetic costs of climate change.

Changes in the time available for organisms to maintain physiologically preferred temperatures (thermal opportunity) is a primary mechanism by which climate change impacts the fitness and population dynamics of organisms. Yet, it is unclear whether losses or gains in thermal opportunity result in proportional changes in rates of energy procurement and use. We experimentally quantified lizard food consumption and energy assimilation at different durations of thermal opportunity.

Configuration of the thermal landscape determines thermoregulatory performance of ectotherms.

Although most organisms thermoregulate behaviorally, biologists still cannot easily predict whether mobile animals will thermoregulate in natural environments. Current models fail because they ignore how the spatial distribution of thermal resources constrains thermoregulatory performance over space and time. To overcome this limitation, we modeled the spatially explicit movements of animals constrained by access to thermal resources.