Are mountain habitats becoming more suitable for generalist than cold-adapted lizards thermoregulation?
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.
Department of Animal Biology, University of Salamanca , Salamanca , Spain.
Zaida
Z
Ortega
Department of Animal Biology, University of Salamanca , Salamanca , Spain.
Abraham
A
Mencía
Department of Animal Biology, University of Salamanca , Salamanca , Spain.
Valentín
V
Pérez-Mellado
Climate change; Cold-adapted; Iberolacerta; Lacertidae; Lizard; Mountain habitats; Podarcis; Temperature; Thermal ecology; Thermal generalist