ArticleEvolutionary applications2014
Climate warming and Bergmann's rule through time: is there any evidence?
Article in Evolutionary applications, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Changes in phenology mediate vertebrate population responses to temperature globally.Nature communications · 2026Pooled it
- Adaptive responses of animals to climate change are most likely insufficient.Nature communications · 2019Pooled it
- Butterflies with low thermoregulatory capacity show greatest upwards range shifts along an elevational gradient.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Smaller plants in warmer water could have implications for future Kelp forests.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Severe en route tropical weather is a predictor of morphological variation and body condition of a Nearctic-Neotropical migratory songbird.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Similar Metabolic Costs for Mangrove Tree Crabs (Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Shrinking body size under climate warming is not associated with selection for smaller individuals in a migratory bird.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- Body-Size Change in a Rodent Is Affected by Environmental Warming and Population-Specific Thermoneutral Zone.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Demand-Resource Mismatch Explains Body Shrinkage in a Migratory Shorebird.Global change biology · 2025Article
- Genetic and morphological shifts associated with climate change in a migratory bird.BMC biology · 2025Article
- Body size decline during thermal evolution is only detected at mild temperature.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Accounting for age: uncovering the nuanced drivers of mammal body-size responses to climate change.Journal of mammalogy · 2024Article
- Global latitudinal gradients and the evolution of body size in dinosaurs and mammals.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Climate change and its effects on body size and shape: the role of endocrine mechanisms.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Climate is changing, are European bats too? A multispecies analysis of trends in body size.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- The magnitude of selection on growth varies among years and increases under warming conditions in a subarctic seabird.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- Melting climates shrink North American small mammals.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- A long-term study of size variation in Northern GoshawkEcology and evolution · 2023Article
- Mechanistic constraints on the trade-off between photosynthesis and respiration in response to warming.Science advances · 2023Article
- A practical guide to collections-based research on ecogeographic rules.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Climate change is expected to induce many ecological and evolutionary changes. Among these is the hypothesis that climate warming will cause a reduction in body size. This hypothesis stems from Bergmann's rule, a trend whereby species exhibit a smaller body size in warmer climates, and larger body size under colder conditions in endotherms. The mechanisms behind this rule are still debated, and it is not clear whether Bergmann's rule can be extended to predict the effects of climate change through time. We reviewed the primary literature for evidence (i) of a decrease in body size in response to climate warming, (ii) that changing body size is an adaptive response and (iii) that these responses are evolutionary or plastic. We found weak evidence for changes in body size through time as predicted by Bergmann's rule. Only three studies investigated the adaptive nature of these size decreases. Of these, none reported evidence of selection for smaller size or of a genetic basis for the size change, suggesting that size decreases could be due to nonadaptive plasticity in response to changing environmental conditions. More studies are needed before firm conclusions can be drawn about the underlying causes of these changes in body size in response to a warming climate.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.