Harshness is not stress

Carsten Schradin (1) , Lindelani Makuya (2) , Neville Pillay (2) , Rebecca Rimbach (2, 3)

1 DEPE-IPHC - Département Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie
2 WITS - University of the Witwatersrand [Johannesburg]
3 Duke University [Durham]

We must differentiate between stressful and harsh environments to understand animals’ resilience to global change. Harshness is not stress. Stressful environments activate the physiological stress response to increase energy availability, while harsh environments inhibit the physiological stress response to save energy.

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie; Bioclimatologie

Carsten Schradin, Lindelani Makuya, Neville Pillay, Rebecca Rimbach. Harshness is not stress. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2023, 38 (3), pp.224-227. ⟨10.1016/j.tree.2022.12.005⟩. ⟨hal-04021519⟩