Sweeney, B.W., J.K. Jackson, J.D. Newbold, and D.H. Funk. 1992. Pages 143–176 in Firth and S. G. Fisher (editors). Global climate change and freshwater ecosystems. Springer-Verlag, New York, New York.
doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-2814-1_7
Abstract
One of the most important factors affecting the life history characteristics and biogeography of aquatic insects is temperature (Sweeney, 1984). Insects are poikilothermic (cold-blooded) animals whose metabolism, rate and magnitude of growth, development, and overall behavioral activities respond significantly to thermal change on a diel, seasonal, and annual basis (Ward and Stanford, 1982). Despite this sensitivity to temperature, most aquatic insect species can be found in aquatic habitats over a broad geographic area that includes a wide range of thermal regimes. Obviously, these aquatic insect species possess bioenergetic, developmental, and/or behavioral mechanisms that enable conspecific populations to survive and reproduce in very different environmental conditions.
