<閱讀測驗>[題組:第44題到第47題]Some of the world’s largest beetles are getting smaller because their habitats are warming up, according to new research from the University of British Columbia, Canada. The study, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology in January 2018, shows that climate change is having an impact on these “teeny tiny” organisms. The study began with a deep dive into the scientific literature. Evolutionary ecologist Michelle Tseng and her students combed through all the articles they could find, looking for laboratory studies of temperature effects on insects. They found 19 that indicated at least 22 beetle species shrank when raised in warmer than normal temperatures. To see whether this pattern held true in the wild, the team made use of the university’s 600,000-specimen insect collection, which included thousands of bugs collected locally since the late 1800s. The researchers took photographs of more than 6,500 beetles from the eight species with the most extensive records. They also looked at climate records to determine trends in rainfall and other factors besides temperature. Sorting the beetles into size categories, they found that five of the eight species have shrunk over the past century. The four largest species of beetles, including the snail-killer ground beetles, shrank 20% in the past 45 years. In contrast, smaller beetles were unaffected or even slightly increased in size. Some ecologists are cautious about Tseng’s findings, saying that it hasn’t yet been proved whether the warming temperatures are the actual cause for the beetle shrinkage. UK biologist Alan Ronan Baudron, however, is convinced. Baudron’s studies have documented shrinkage of certain fish species due to climate warming. His account is that warmer temperatures lower the concentration of oxygen in the water, causing fish to burn energy faster and mature at a smaller size. But neither he nor Tseng is convinced that decreased oxygen can explain the shrinkage in the beetles. 44. What is the best title for the passage? (A) Large Beetles Are Shrinking, Thanks to Climate Change (B) Beetles vs. Fish: Are They Becoming Smaller? (C) What We Know About Evolutionary Ecology (D) Animal Ecology: Past and Present
