Costs and Consequences of Evolutionary Temperature Adaptation: Response pt. 2

As far as temperature compensation in the organism-level processes Clarke argues that studies are focused too much on the cellular level and that we do not have an adequate understanding at the molecular level. He proposes to examine the thermodynamic characteristics of the growth processes at a molecular level in order to expand our knowledge on the subject. Temperature compensation is not the only adaptation that Clarke feels is worth understanding. Just as important are the costs of temperature adaptation that come along with compensation. A major cost is the turnover of proteins based on the outcome of temperature, molecular stability, and physiological function. A way to examine these costs is to look at the total costs of existence for an organism excluding reproduction, growth, and activity. These costs have shown to vary with temperature and studies have provided data that point to organisms living in cold temperatures having protein degraded more than those in warmer temperatures.