Half time seminar: “Thermal acclimation across biological scales: Understanding ectotherm responses to rapid warming”

Mafalda Tomás will give her halftime seminar, where she will talk about how ectothermic animals like fish can acclimate physiologically to changing temperatures, see more below. 
Opponent at the seminar is Erik Sandblom, and examiner Joachim Sturve, both from Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences. Mafalda’s main supervisor is Fredrik Jutfelt (BioEnv) with Albin Gräns (SLU) and Zara-Louise Cowan (BioEnv) as co-supervisors.

Short abstract
Climate warming is increasing both the average and variability of environmental temperatures, exposing organisms to more frequent and intense extreme events. These changes are particularly important for ectotherms, whose body temperatures, and therefore key biological processes, are tightly linked to their environment. One important mechanism by which ectotherms cope with changing thermal conditions is physiological acclimation, a form of reversible phenotypic plasticity that allows short-term adjustments in thermal tolerance. My PhD focuses on understanding how thermal acclimation operates across multiple levels of biological organisation, from whole organisms and communities to individual cells. By integrating these scales, my research aims to identify where acclimation is effective, where its limits lie, and how it shapes the resilience of ectothermic species to rapid climate warming.