Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is a key property of organisms known to influence their resource use and survival. Here we examine how BMR influences long term species survival by focusing on marine gastropods and bivalves from the fossil and extant biota of the West Atlantic (WA) region along the eastern coast of the United States. This region has a detailed and intensively sampled fossil record, and many species still alive today occur back to 3 million years ago, a time when ocean temperatures were relatively warm, approximating conditions expected to be reached within the next ~ century. Using information from paleoclimate and other variables, along with data from collection visits and digital museum records, BMR values were calculated and compared between those species that survived and those species that went extinct in the region. A highly statistically significant difference in BMR was found, with survivors having lower BMRs. This indicates that sometimes properties of organisms can be extrapolated upwards to explain species survival, and that in the face of climate change, species with organisms having lower activity levels and using fewer resources are more likely to survive. Using data from iDigBio we also examined BMR patterns at the assemblage level, and by contrast found that at this scale no significant changes in metabolic rate occurred through time. This suggests that even with substantial extinction, communities of Neogene mollusks were stable energetically, pointing out the disconnect that can exist between macroevolutionary and macroecological patterns.

Luke C. Strotz, Northwest University
Erin E. Saupe, Oxford University
Bruce S. Lieberman, University of Kansas