title: Habitat degradation increases stress-hormone levels during the breeding season, and decreases survival and reproduction in adult common lizards.
abstract: The allostatic load model describes how individuals maintain homeostasis in challenging environment and posits that costs induced by a chronic perturbation (i.e., allostatic load) are correlated to the secretion of glucocorticoids, such as corticosterone. Habitat perturbations from anthropogenic activities are multiple and functional responses to those are still unclear. Here, we manipulated the habitat quality in 24 semi-natural populations of the common lizard during 1 year. We tested the predictions of the allostatic load model that habitat degradation should increase baseline corticosterone levels, and should induce concomitant physiological changes, such as lipid mobilization and lower immunocompetence, and demographic changes, such as lower body growth, survival and/or reproductive performances. Our results highlight stage-dependent effects of habitat degradation on physiological traits during the breeding season: adult lizards had higher baseline corticosterone levels and yearling lizards had a lower inflammatory response than adults, whereas juveniles had higher circulating lipid levels than yearlings and adults without concomitant change in corticosterone levels. In addition, habitat degradation reduced the performances of adults but not of juveniles: in low habitat quality populations, adult males had a lower survival and females had a smaller fecundity. These results are in accordance with the allostatic load model given that allostatic load was detected only during the season and in life stages of maximal energy expenditure. This underlines the importance to account for individual energy requirements to better understand demographic responses to habitat perturbation.
authors.affiliation: Institut d'écologie et des sciences de l'environnement (IEES), Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Université Paris 6, CNRS, IRD, INRA, 75005, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Rémy
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7864-9748
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Josserand
authors.affiliation: Institut d'écologie et des sciences de l'environnement (IEES), Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Université Paris 6, CNRS, IRD, INRA, 75005, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Andréaz
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dupoué
authors.affiliation: Département de biologie, Ecole normale supérieure, PSL Research University, CNRS, UMS, 3194, Centre de recherche en écologie expérimentale et prédictive (CEREEP-Ecotron IleDeFrance), 78 rue du château, 77140, Saint-Pierre-lès-Nemours, France.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Agostini
authors.affiliation: Institut d'écologie et des sciences de l'environnement (IEES), Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Université Paris 6, CNRS, IRD, INRA, 75005, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Claudy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Haussy
authors.affiliation: Institut d'écologie et des sciences de l'environnement (IEES), Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Université Paris 6, CNRS, IRD, INRA, 75005, Paris, France.|Département de biologie, Ecole normale supérieure, PSL Research University, CNRS, UMS, 3194, Centre de recherche en écologie expérimentale et prédictive (CEREEP-Ecotron IleDeFrance), 78 rue du château, 77140, Saint-Pierre-lès-Nemours, France.
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Le Galliard
authors.affiliation: Institut d'écologie et des sciences de l'environnement (IEES), Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Université Paris 6, CNRS, IRD, INRA, 75005, Paris, France. sandrine.meylan@upmc.fr.|ESPE de Paris, Université Sorbonne Paris IV, 10 rue Molitor, 75016, Paris, France. sandrine.meylan@upmc.fr.
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meylan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D003345:Corticosterone; D017753:Ecosystem; D008116:Lizards; D012098:Reproduction; D012621:Seasons; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D003345:Corticosterone
keywords: Allostasis; Corticosterone; Fitness; Immunocompetence; Triglycerides