Warmer Climate Will Bake TropicalBugs

　　Globalwarming could cook tropical insects, with unpredictable knock-on effects, sayresearchers who warn that rising temperatures also______(51) tropical frogs,lizards (蜥蜴).

　　Temperaturesare ______ (52) to increase much faster in temperate(溫和的) andpolar（極地的）regions than in the tropics. But no-one had looked at how warming would affectinsects and other cold-blooded animals ______ (53) had evolved in tropicalregions with little temperature variation.

　　CurtisDeutsch at the University of California at Los Angeles and colleagues analyseddata ______ (54) insect survival and reproduction for 38 species in differentecosystems（生態(tài)系統(tǒng)）, andthen estimated how these values would ______ (55) with predictions of climatechange for the 21st century.

　　Theteam found that the reproductive ______ (56) of tropical insects tends to peakvery close to the temperatures where they normally live, but______ (57) sharplyat higher temperatures. This means that cranking up （提高）theheat only a small amount can exert a heavy toll, leaving insects unable toreproduce ______ (58) enough to keep up their numbers.

　　Temperaturetolerance

　　Temperateinsects reproduce well over a broader range, and do not live as ______ (59) totheir thermal(熱的)limit, so they can reproduce successfully when their climate warms more than inthe tropics.

　　“Tropicalinsects do very well in a narrow band of temperatures, but move them above that______ (60) and they die,” says team member Josh Tewksbury of the University ofWashington in Seattle.

　　Theheart of the ______ (61) is temperature tolerance. emperate-zone insects haveevolved to survive the much broader temperature swings of seasonal climates,than have their tropical relatives.

　　The______ (62) appears worse for animals that live in hot stable climate of thelower levels of tropical forests. Lizards in clear areas can find shade to cooldown, but those living in the forest are already in the ______ (63), andthere's not much they can do to get cooler, Deutsch says.

　　Too fewtropical insects have been studied so far to ______ (64) if any particulargroup will be particularly hard-hit, says Tewksbury. Insects play important______ (65) in forest ecology（生態(tài)學）, including pollination, and eatingdetritus to recycle carbon.

　　Theteam are now starting to evaluate how temperature affects ecologicalinteractions of insects with other species, including crops such as Africancorn.

　　參考答案：

　　51 threaten　　52 expected　　53 that　　54 on　　55 change

　　56 rate　　 57 drops　 　58 sucessfully　　59 close　　60 range

　　61 problem　　62: effect　　63 shade　　 64 tell　　65 roles