Climate aridity and habitat drive geographical variation in morphology and thermo-hydroregulation strategies of a widespread lizard species
Type | Article | ||||||||||||
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Date | 2022-11 | ||||||||||||
Language | English | ||||||||||||
Author(s) | Chabaud Chloe1, 2, Berroneau Matthieu3, Berroneau Maud3, Dupoue Andreaz2, Guillon Michael1, 3, Viton Robin1, Gavira Rodrigo S. B.1, Clobert Jean4, Lourdais Olivier1, Le Galliard Jean-Francois2, 5 | ||||||||||||
Affiliation(s) | 1 : Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Université La Rochelle, CNRS, UMR 7372, 405 Route de Prissé la Charrière, 79360 Villiers-en-Bois, France 2 : iEES Paris, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 7618, Faculté Sciences et Ingénierie, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France 3 : Cistude Nature, Chemin du Moulinat, 33185 Le Haillan, France 4 : Station d’Ecologie Théorique et Expérimentale, CNRS, UMR 5321, Route du CNRS, Moulis, France 5 : École normale supérieure, PSL Research University, Département de biologie, CNRS, UMS 3194, Centre de recherche en écologie expérimentale et prédictive (CEREEP-Ecotron IleDeFrance), 78 rue du château, 77140 Saint-Pierre-lès-Nemours, France |
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Source | Biological Journal Of The Linnean Society (0024-4066) (Oxford Univ Press), 2022-11 , Vol. 137 , N. 4 , P. 667-685 | ||||||||||||
DOI | 10.1093/biolinnean/blac114 | ||||||||||||
WOS© Times Cited | 2 | ||||||||||||
Keyword(s) | aridity, evaporative water loss, lizards, metabolism, morphology, reptiles, thermal preferences | ||||||||||||
Abstract | Thermo-hydroregulation strategies involve concurrent changes in functional traits related to energy, water balance and thermoregulation and play a key role in determining life-history traits and population demography of terrestrial ectotherms. Local thermal and hydric conditions should be important drivers of the geographical variation of thermo-hydroregulation strategies, but we lack studies that examine these changes across climatic gradients in different habitat types. Here, we investigated intraspecific variation of morphology and thermo-hydroregulation traits in the widespread European common lizard (Zootoca vivipara louislantzi) across a multidimensional environmental gradient involving independent variation in air temperature and rainfall and differences in habitat features (access to free-standing water and forest cover). We sampled adult males for morphology, resting metabolic rate, total and cutaneous evaporative water loss and thermal preferences in 15 populations from the rear to the leading edge of the distribution across an elevational gradient ranging from sea level to 1750 m. Besides a decrease in adult body size with increasing environmental temperatures, we found little effect of thermal conditions on thermo-hydroregulation strategies. In particular, relict lowland populations from the warm rear edge showed no specific ecophysiological adaptations. Instead, body mass, body condition and resting metabolic rate were positively associated with a rainfall gradient, while forest cover and water access in the habitat throughout the season also influenced cutaneous evaporative water loss. Our study emphasizes the importance of rainfall and habitat features rather than thermal conditions for geographical variation in lizard morphology and physiology. |
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