ORCID

Abstract

In the Anthropocene, species are increasingly faced with multiple stressors that are more severe and less predictable than before. While multiple stressors often interact to affect organisms negatively, sometimes these interactions can be beneficial, enhancing resilience through cross-protection. Cross-protection interactions occur when exposure to one stressor, such as elevated temperature, enhances an organism’s tolerance to a different stressor, like hypoxia, through shared protective mechanisms or signaling pathways. Understanding the potential for cross-protection to combat rapid and diverse environmental change is crucial for conservation, as it potentially alters the predicted consequences of such change. Here, we outline 10 key considerations for investigating cross-protection in a conservation context. These considerations include the importance of stressor intensity and timing, recognizing species-specific and sex-specific responses, and embracing temporal variability in environmental stressors. Additionally, predictions will depend upon uncovering the underlying mechanisms of cross-protection by integrating emerging approaches like omics and meta-analyses. By better understanding—and in some cases explicitly leveraging—cross-protective interactions, conservation practitioners may be able to develop more effective management plans to enhance species resilience, potentially mitigating the immediate effects of emerging stressors. These insights are vital for guiding future research directions and informing conservation policies and management practices to preserve biodiversity in the Anthropocene.

Publication Date

2025-07-30

Publication Title

Conservation Physiology

Volume

13

Issue

1

Acceptance Date

2025-07-07

Deposit Date

2025-07-31

Funding

This work was supported by the Society for Experimental Biology and Frontiers Media Limited for sponsoring the 2024 Society for Experimental Biology session (A11: Not all stress is bad: Understanding protective stressor interactions in changing environments). They also provided financial support to invited speakers (G.M., W.W.D.) and early career researchers (E.M.R., F.V., L.F. and D.F.G.I.) to attend the conference. Additionally, this work was supported by NSF IOS-2349877 awarded to W.W.D., and the ANID Fondecyt Project 11221161 and CIDI 23 COSTAR-UV awarded to S.B.

Keywords

Abiotic stressor, conservation management, cross-protection, cross-talk, environmental variability, inducible stress, multiple stressors, preconditioning, species resilience, stressor interactions, tolerance

Additional Files
Rodgers_et_al_2025_Accepted.pdf (519 kB)
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Additional Files

Rodgers_et_al_2025_Accepted.pdf (519 kB)

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