Physiological constraints and predicting responses to climate change

Physiological tolerance of high temperatures places constraints on organismal responses to the temperature increases associated with global climate change. Understanding how these constraints on physiological tolerance vary across space, time, and among species can be used to improve forecasts of responses to climate change. Because ants are geographically widespread and ecologically diverse, they are an ideal model system for exploring the ability of physiological tolerance to predict responses to climate change.