Dear Editor,
Please consider our manuscript entitled “Fifty years of data show that
climate affects overall skull size, and the extent of seasonal
reversible skull change in the common shrew” for publication in your
journal.
In today’s changing world we are all becoming aware of the severe impact
climate change has and will continue to have on biodiversity. However,
we lack studies that cover large enough time periods to really address
this question. Here we present an analysis of a dataset that, we think,
is unique for two main reasons: a) it adresses a 52-year time range,
including the onset of climate change and b) the animal model is a
species that is likely very sensitive to global warming as it has a
predominantly Northern distribution. In addition, our model, the common
shrew has an extremely high metabolism and does not hibernate, making
winter a sensitive season for them. As an adaptation to this, the shrews
shrink in winter and regrow in spring. Only a collection such as the one
from the Mammal Research Institute in Poland that we used, which
contains animals collected year-round, allows to address climate change
related questions in this species.
Body size (as measured by the skull) is a well-established measure in
this species and it shows patterns opposite to what you would expect
with larger within-species body sizes towards the South. We present a
thorough analysis incorporating a large number of environmental
variables showing that this species is indeed affected by climate change
and, along with the many other species in the genus Sorex , will
likely continue to do so.
We thus believe that this paper does not only document the effect of
climate change in a particularly extensive dataset, but also sends an
urgent message and will be widely received by a broad audience.
Yours faithfully,
Jan R.E. Taylor and co-authors