Nesting lizards (<i>Bassiana duperreyi</i>) compensate partly, but not completely, for climate change

Telemeco, Rory S.; Elphick, Melanie J.; Shine, Richard

doi:10.1890/08-1452.1

Cited by 158 publications

(168 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Demographic models should benefit from understanding how each life stage avoids or tolerates thermal stress. For embryos, the consequences of global warming depend on where mothers will lay eggs in future environments [39]. In past climates, even mothers in the warmest regions could nest in sunnier patches, where embryos would survive better, hatch earlier, and have more time to grow before winter.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resolving the life cycle alters expected impacts of climate change

et al. 2015

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Recent models predict contrasting impacts of climate change on tropical and temperate species, but these models ignore how environmental stress and organismal tolerance change during the life cycle. For example, geographical ranges and extinction risks have been inferred from thermal constraints on activity during the adult stage. Yet, most animals pass through a sessile embryonic stage before reaching adulthood, making them more susceptible to warming climates than current models would suggest. By projecting microclimates at high spatio-temporal resolution and measuring thermal tolerances of embryos, we developed a life cycle model of population dynamics for North American lizards. Our analyses show that previous models dramatically underestimate the demographic impacts of climate change. A predicted loss of fitness in 2% of the USA by 2100 became 35% when considering embryonic performance in response to hourly fluctuations in soil temperature. Most lethal events would have been overlooked if we had ignored thermal stress during embryonic development or had averaged temperatures over time. Therefore, accurate forecasts require detailed knowledge of environmental conditions and thermal tolerances throughout the life cycle.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resolving the life cycle alters expected impacts of climate change

et al. 2015

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“…Thus, climate change may simultaneously generate novel challenges for post-hatching organisms [24], while also modifying their ability to respond flexibly to such challenges. In B. duperreyi, hotter natural nests over recent decades (due to climate change: [23]) probably have produced hatchling lizards with enhanced learning abilities. For other species, however, the evoked plasticity may render them less rather than more capable of dealing with a changing environment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hotter nests produce smarter young lizards

Amiel

Shine

2012

Biol. Lett.

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A hatchling reptile's sex, body size and shape, and locomotor performance can be influenced not only by its genes, but also by the temperature that it experiences during incubation. Can incubation temperature also affect a hatchling's cognitive skills? In the scincid lizard Bassiana duperreyi, higher incubation temperatures enhanced the resultant hatchling's learning performance. Hence, factors such as maternal nest-site selection and climate change affect not only the size, shape and athletic abilities of hatchling reptiles, but also their ability to learn novel tasks.

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“…For example, in oviparous species, females can choose nests that are more or less in the sun or can dig nests at different depths (e.g. Shine and Harlow, 1996;Shine et al, 2002;Doody et al, 2006;Telemeco et al, 2009). In viviparous species, gravid females can manipulate developmental temperatures through thermoregulation (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographical differences in maternal basking behaviour and offspring growth rate in a climatically widespread viviparous reptile

Cadby

Jones

Wapstra

2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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In reptiles, the thermal environment during embryonic development affects offspring phenotypic traits and potentially offspring fitness. In viviparous species, mothers can potentially manipulate the embryonic thermal environment through their basking behaviour and, thus, may be able to manipulate offspring phenotype and increase offspring fitness. One way in which mothers can maximise offspring phenotype (and thus potentially affect offspring fitness) is by fine-tuning their basking behaviour to the environment in order to buffer the embryo from deleterious developmental temperatures. In widespread species, it is unclear whether populations that have evolved under different climatic conditions will exhibit different maternal behaviours and/or thermal effects on offspring phenotype. To test this, we provided extended or reduced basking opportunity to gravid spotted skinks (Niveoscincus ocellatus) and their offspring from two populations at the climatic extremes of the species' distribution. Gravid females finetuned their basking behaviour to the basking opportunity, which allowed them to buffer their embryos from potentially negative thermal effects. This fine-tuning of female basking behaviour appears to have led to the expression of geographical differences in basking behaviour, with females from the cold alpine regions being more opportunistic in their basking behaviour than females from the warmer regions. However, those differences in maternal behaviour did not preclude the evolution of geographic differences in thermal effects: offspring growth varied between populations, potentially suggesting local adaptation to basking conditions. Our results demonstrate that maternal effects and phenotypic plasticity can play a significant role in allowing species to cope in changing environmental conditions, which is particularly relevant in the context of climate change. KEY WORDS: Maternal effect, Maternal buffering, Climate change, Phenotypic plasticity, Population, Spotted skink INTRODUCTIONMaternal effects are the interactions between a mother and her offspring that affect offspring phenotype independently of the mother's genetic contribution. They have been described as being highly dynamic, and they vary in direction and strength depending on the environment or the context (Uller, 2008;Plaistow and Benton, 2009 et al., 2011). However, perhaps more overlooked is the fact that they can also vary between ultimate contexts (i.e. the environmental conditions under which they have evolved) and may in some cases become locally adapted (Ghalambor et al., 2007;Hof et al., 2011;Hoffmann and Sgrò, 2011). Typically, we would expect to see local adaptation in maternal effects in widespread species in which the immediate maternal environment differs consistently between populations (e.g. Räsänen et al., 2005;Doody et al., 2006;Doody, 2009).In reptiles, the temperature experienced by embryos during development can affect numerous phenotypic traits such as date of birth, size at birth, sex, locomotor performance or beh...

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Nesting lizards (Bassiana duperreyi) compensate partly, but not completely, for climate change

Cited by 158 publications

References 37 publications

Resolving the life cycle alters expected impacts of climate change

Resolving the life cycle alters expected impacts of climate change

Hotter nests produce smarter young lizards

Geographical differences in maternal basking behaviour and offspring growth rate in a climatically widespread viviparous reptile

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