New Scientist: Honey, we shrank the copepods. These tiny marine animals offer a clue to why a warming climate makes animals smaller.
It is well established that cold-blooded species get smaller as the climate heats up, says Andrew Hirst of Queen Mary, University of London. Experiments show that, on average, 1 °C of warming reduces their adult body mass by 2.5 per cent. The mystery is why.
To find out, Hirst pulled together data on 15 species of copepod that swim in the open sea, focusing on how they grew......
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Why the warming climate makes animals smaller
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 24th, 2011
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