Understanding rates and patterns of change in physiological and climatic-niche variables is of urgent importance as many species are increasingly threatened by rising global temperatures. Here, we broadly test several fundamental hypotheses about physiological and niche evolution for the first time (with appropriate phylogenetic methods), using published data from 2059 vertebrate species. Our main results show that: (i) physiological tolerances to heat evolve more slowly than those to cold, (ii) the hottest climatic-niche temperatures change more slowly than the coldest climatic-niche temperatures, and (iii) physiological tolerances to heat and cold evolve more slowly than the corresponding climatic-niche variables. Physiological tolerances are significantly and positively related to the corresponding climatic-niche variables, but species often occur in climates outside the range of these tolerances. However, mismatches between climate and physiology do not necessarily mean that the climatic-niche data are misleading. Instead, some standard physiological variables used in vertebrates (i.e. critical thermal maxima and minima) may reflect when species are active (daily, seasonally) and their local-scale microhabitats (sun versus shade), rather than their large-scale climatic distributions.

中文翻译：

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较高的温度会降低生理和生态位进化的速度

由于许多物种越来越受到全球气温上升的威胁，因此了解生理和气候生态位变量的变化速率和模式具有紧迫的重要性。在这里，我们使用 2059 种脊椎动物的已发表数据，首次广泛测试了关于生理和生态位进化的几个基本假设（使用适当的系统发育方法）。我们的主要结果表明：(i) 对热的生理耐受性比对冷的耐受性发展得更慢，(ii) 最热的气候位点温度比最冷的气候位点温度变化得更慢，以及 (iii) 对热和冷的生理耐受性。寒冷的演变比相应的气候生态位变量更慢。生理耐受性与相应的气候生态位变量显着正相关，但物种经常出现在这些容忍范围之外的气候中。然而，气候和生理之间的不匹配并不一定意味着气候生态位数据具有误导性。相反，脊椎动物中使用的一些标准生理变量（即临界热最大值和最小值）可能反映物种何时活跃（每天、季节性）和它们的局部微生境（阳光与阴凉处），而不是它们的大规模气候分布。