The importance of counting: Talbot goes quantitative

The transition from purely descriptive to quantitative, mechanistic explorations of natural systems has occurred in many disciplines. Mary Talbot’s work embodies this transition to quantitative assessments of the physiological mechanisms that underlie variation in range and distribution of one of the most diverse, geographically widespread and ecologically important taxa—ants. Here, I present recent findings from global analyses of the relationships between thermal tolerance limits, environmental niches and range size in ants; thermal specialists found in low latitude, tropical regions are also range restricted, increasing their vulnerability to ongoing changes in climate.