Are mountain habitats becoming more suitable for generalist than cold-adapted lizards thermoregulation?
[EN] Mountain lizards are highly vulnerable to climate change, and the continuous warming of their habitats could be seriously threatening their survival. We aim to compare the thermal ecology and microhabitat selection of a mountain lizard, Iberolacerta galani, and a widely distributed lizard, Poda...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2016 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de León |
| Repositorio: | BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:buleria.unileon.es:10612/23847 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://peerj.com/articles/2085/ https://hdl.handle.net/10612/23847 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Biología Ecología. Medio ambiente Zoología Termorregulación Lagartijas Cambio climático Lizard Climate change Cold-adapted Thermal generalist Temperature Lacertidae Iberolacerta Podarcis Mountain habitats Thermal ecology 2401 Biología Animal (Zoología) 2401.02 Comportamiento Animal 2401.06 Ecología Animal 2401.23 Vertebrados 3105.09 Influencia del Hábitat |
| Sumario: | [EN] Mountain lizards are highly vulnerable to climate change, and the continuous warming of their habitats could be seriously threatening their survival. We aim to compare the thermal ecology and microhabitat selection of a mountain lizard, Iberolacerta galani, and a widely distributed lizard, Podarcis bocagei, in a montane area. Both species are currently in close syntopy in the study area, at 1,400 m above the sea level. We determined the precision, accuracy and effectiveness of thermoregulation, and the thermal quality of habitat for both species. We also compared the selection of thermal microhabitats between both species. Results show that I. galani is a cold-adapted thermal specialist with a preferred temperature range of 27.9–29.7 °C, while P. bocagei would be a thermal generalist, with a broader and higher preferred temperature range (30.1–34.5 °C). In addition, I. galani selects rocky substrates while P. bocagei selects warmer soil and leaf litter substrates. The thermal quality of the habitat is higher for P. bocagei than for I. galani. Finally, P. bocagei achieves a significantly higher effectiveness of thermoregulation (0.87) than I. galani (0.80). Therefore, these mountain habitat conditions seem currently more suitable for performance of thermophilic generalist lizards than for cold-specialist lizards |
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