REVIEW: Sublethal effects of temperature on freshwater organisms, with special reference to aquatic insects

Abstract

Water temperature is an important abiotic driver of aquatic ecosystems influencing many aspects of an organism’s existence including its feeding, metabolic and growth rates, fecundity, emergence, behaviour and ultimately survival (see Caissie, 2006; Dallas, 2008; Webb et al., 2008 for reviews). All organ isms have a preferred range of temperatures, often termed the ‘optimum thermal regime’ (Vannote and Sweeney, 1980), at which optimal growth, reproduction and other measures of ‘health’ are greatest (Dallas and Day, 2004). This optimum range is bounded by the thermal tolerance range (i.e. the range over which a species may survive) with upper and lower tolerance limits demarcating the thermal extremes. Organisms of a given species may survive on either side of this optimal range but as the tolerance limits are approached, signs of stress become evident. The first signs of thermal stress are usually behavioural with avoidance of suboptimal conditions, followed by physiological stress (e.g.

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