Behaviour broadens thermal safety margins on artificial coastal defences in the tropics.

Tropical species are predicted to be among the most vulnerable to climate change as they often live close to their upper limits to thermal tolerance and in many cases, behavioural thermoregulation is required to persist in the thermal extremes of tropical latitudes. In concert with warming temperatures, near-shore species are faced with the additional threat of shoreline hardening, leading to a reduction in microhabitats that can provide thermal refuges. This situation is exemplified in Singapore, which lies almost on the equator and so experiences year-round hot temperatures, and much of its coastline is now seawall.