Bergmann's rule
Bergmann's rule is an
Although originally formulated in relation to species within a genus, it has often been recast in relation to populations within a species. It is also often cast in relation to latitude. It is possible that the rule also applies to some plants, such as Rapicactus.
The rule is named after nineteenth century
Larger-bodied animals tend to conform more closely to Bergmann's rule than smaller-bodied animals, at least up to certain latitudes. This perhaps reflects a reduced ability to avoid stressful environments, such as by burrowing.
Examples
Humans
Human populations near the poles, including the
Human populations also show a decrease in stature with an increase in mean annual temperature.[16] Bergmann's rule holds for Africans with the pygmy phenotype and other pygmy peoples. These populations show a shorter stature and smaller body size due to an adaptation to hotter and more humid environments.[17] With elevated environmental humidity, evaporative cooling (sweating) is a less effective way to dissipate body heat, but a higher surface area to volume ratio should provide a slight advantage through passive convective heat loss.
Birds
A 2019 study of changes in the morphology of migratory birds used bodies of birds which had collided with buildings in Chicago from 1978 to 2016. The length of birds' lower leg bones (an indicator of body size) shortened by an average of 2.4% and their wings lengthened by 1.3%. A similar study published in 2021 used measurements of 77 nonmigratory bird species captured live for banding in lowland
Reptiles
Bergmann's rule has been reported to be vaguely followed by female crocodilians.[22][23] However, for turtles[24] or lizards[25] the rule's validity has not been supported.
Invertebrates
Evidence of Bergmann's rule has been found in marine copepods.[26]
Plants
Bergmann's rule cannot generally be applied to plants.
Explanations
The earliest explanation, given by Bergmann when originally formulating the rule, is that larger animals have a lower
Thus, the higher surface area-to-volume ratio of smaller animals in hot and dry climates facilitates heat loss through the skin and helps cool the body. It is important to note that when analyzing Bergmann's Rule in the field that groups of populations being studied are of different thermal environments, and also have been separated long enough to genetically differentiate in response to these thermal conditions.[31] The relationship between stature and mean annual temperature can be explained by modeling any shape that is increasing in any dimension. As you increase the height of a shape, its surface area-to-volume ratio will decrease. Modeling a person's trunk and limbs as cylinders shows a 17% decrease in surface area-to-volume ratio from a person who is five feet tall to a person who is six feet tall even at the same body mass index (BMI).
In marine
Hesse's rule
In 1937 German zoologist and ecologist Richard Hesse proposed an extension of Bergmann's rule. Hesse's rule, also known as the heart–weight rule, states that species inhabiting colder climates have a larger heart in relation to body weight than closely related species inhabiting warmer climates.[34]
Criticism
In a 1986 study, Valerius Geist claimed Bergmann's rule to be false: the correlation with temperature is spurious; instead, Geist found that body size is proportional to the duration of the annual productivity pulse, or food availability per animal during the growing season.[35]
Because many factors can affect body size, there are many critics of Bergmann's rule. Some[
Resource availability is a major constraint on the overall success of many organisms. Resource scarcity can limit the total number of organisms in a habitat, and over time can also cause organisms to adapt by becoming smaller in body size. Resource availability thus becomes a modifying restraint on Bergmann's Rule.[36]
Some examinations of the fossil record have found contradictions to the rule. For example, during the Pleistocene, hippopotamuses in Europe tended to get smaller during colder and drier intervals.[37] Further, a 2024 study found the size of dinosaurs did not increase at northern Arctic latitudes, and that the rule was "only applicable to a subset of homeothermic animals" with regard to temperature when all other climatic variables are ignored.[38]
See also
References
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- ^ Erickson, Jim (November 1, 2013). "Global warming led to dwarfism in mammals — twice". University of Michigan. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
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- ^ Dominy, Nathaniel; Perry, George (February 25, 2009). "Evolution of the human pygmy phenotype".
- ^ Vlamis, K. (4 December 2019). "Birds 'shrinking' as the climate warms". BBC News. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
- ^ Liao, Kristine (4 December 2019). "North American Birds Are Shrinking, Likely a Result of the Warming Climate". Audubon. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
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- ^ Georgiou, A. (12 March 2020). "Crocodilians, Which Have Walked Earth for Nearly 100 Million Years, Are Survivors of Mass Extinctions and May Be Able to Adapt to Climate Change". newsweek.com. Newsweek. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
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- ^ Baum, Steven (January 20, 1997). "Hesse's rule". Glossary of Oceanography and the Related Geosciences with References. Texas Center for Climate Studies, Texas A&M University. Archived from the original on December 22, 2010. Retrieved 2011-01-09.
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- ^ Grimes, Marmian; Fairbanks, University of Alaska. "Dinosaur study challenges Bergmann's rule". phys.org. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
Notes
- Bergmann, Carl (1847). "Über die Verhältnisse der Wärmeökonomie der Thiere zu ihrer Grösse". Göttinger Studien. 3 (1): 595–708.
- Roberts DF (1953). "Body weight, race and climate". PMID 13124471.
- Roberts DF (1978). Climate and Human Variability (2nd ed.). Menlo Park, CA: Cummings. ISBN 9780846566250.
- Ruff CB (1994). "Morphological adaptation to climate in modern and fossil hominids". .
- Schreider E (1950). "Geographical distribution of the body-weight/body-surface ratio". PMID 15410342.