Marko Bračić
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bracic.bsky.social
Marko Bračić
@bracic.bsky.social
470 followers 55 following 1 posts
Behavioural biologist exploring animal decision-making and its ecological impacts 🐜.
Passionate explorer of nature, excited about social insects, birding and R.
Decision-making | cognition | individual differences | open-science
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bracic.bsky.social
#BES2024 people, visit my poster session today at 6pm on microclimate and behavioural thermoregulation in ants.

This is my first #BES conference and I am excited to meet ecological community after doing my phd in behaviour/cognition.
Title: Mapping Microclimatic Heterogeneity and Exploring Behavioral Thermoregulation of Ants Authors: Marko Bračić; Jelena Bujan Predictions of species’ ability to withstand global warming often rely on temperature averages, underestimating microclimatic availability and potential for behavioural thermoregulation. Such thermoregulation of ectotherms is especially influenced by heterogeneity of thermal landscapes. Leveraging the natural temperature gradients across islands of different sizes, we studied islands’ thermal heterogeneity and behavioural thermoregulation of multiple ant species. We are currently quantifying thermal heterogeneity using drone thermal imaging paired with thermocouple measurements. Preliminary findings reveal significant variation in thermal heterogeneity between time of day. To investigate the link between heterogeneity and behavioural thermoregulation, we are assessing how ants change their foraging depending on fine-scale differences in temperature. Additionally, by comparing differences in foraging between populations on the colder and warmer islands, we are testing thermoregulatory adaptation potential. Uniting microclimatic and behavioural data at a large scale will uncover insects’ potential to cope with climate change.
December 11, 2024 at 2:54 PM