Assistant Professor Kimberly Sheldon published results from a recent study in Biology Letters that suggest adult dung beetles may be changing their behavior to partially buffer developing offspring from temperature changes related to climate change.
“I developed mini-greenhouses that raised the temperature average and variance in experimental buckets,” Sheldon said. “We put beetles in the buckets and recorded their behaviors, and we found that females buried their offspring farther in the soil to avoid warmer temperatures.”
Will Kirkpatrick, an undergraduate student researcher in the Sheldon Lab, ran the field component.