Booming during a bust: Asynchronous population responses of arid zone lizards to climatic variables

Read, John; Kovac, Kelli-Jo; Brook, Barry W.; Fordham, Damien A.

doi:10.1016/j.actao.2011.09.006

Cited by 29 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Increased heat and dehydration stress in January, poorer over-wintering survival and negative impacts on developing offspring may have altered competitive interactions with the more arid adapted red-barred dragon. Water in particular may be an important driver of the relative abundance of sympatric Ctenophorus species in Australia (Bradshaw, 1977;Dickman et al, 1999;Read et al, 2012). Future research could investigate this further by quantifying the thermoregulatory preferences and desiccation sensitivities of the redbarred dragon.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…(For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.) lizard species in Australia have found that arid adapted species become more abundant during periods of low rainfall, whilst mesic adapted species become more abundant after periods of high rainfall (Dickman et al, 1999;Read et al, 2012). Additionally, studies of related Ctenophorus species have shown that mesic adapted species are similarly successful at regulating their body temperature during hot weather compared to arid adapted species, but that their rate of cutaneous water loss is almost three times as great at high body temperatures (Bradshaw, 1977).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Has contemporary climate change played a role in population declines of the lizard Ctenophorus decresii from semi-arid Australia?

Walker

Stuart‐Fox

Kearney

2015

Journal of Thermal Biology

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Has contemporary climate change played a role in population declines of the lizard Ctenophorus decresii from semi-arid Australia?

Walker

Stuart‐Fox

Kearney

2015

Journal of Thermal Biology

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“…Lastly, although the ENSO phenomenon has low impacts on Australia's arid inland areas (Bureau of Meteorology , Read et al. ), we investigated the effects of ENSO itself as a direct distant climatic parameter. We therefore calculated the summer (October–March) and winter (April–September) mean indices of the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI, an index to track ENSO) using monthly time‐series of the Bureau of Meteorology, Australian Government (Appendix , data available online )…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), very few studies investigated their plasticity and possible adaptation to climate change in hot deserts (Barrows , Read et al. , Jezkova et al. , Walker et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Some like it hot: from individual to population responses of an arboreal arid‐zone gecko to local and distant climate

Grimm‐Seyfarth

Mihoub

Gruber

et al. 2018

Ecological Monographs

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Accumulating evidence has demonstrated considerable impact of climate change on biodiversity, with terrestrial ectotherms being particularly vulnerable. While climate‐induced range shifts are often addressed in the literature, little is known about the underlying ecological responses at individual and population levels. Using a 30‐yr monitoring study of the long‐living nocturnal gecko Gehyra variegata in arid Australia, we determined the relative contribution of climatic factors acting locally (temperature, rainfall) or distantly (La Niña induced flooding) on ecological processes ranging from traits at the individual level (body condition, body growth) to the demography at population level (survival, sexual maturity, population sizes). We also investigated whether thermoregulatory activity during both active (night) and resting (daytime) periods of the day can explain these responses. Gehyra variegata responded to local and distant climatic effects. Both high temperatures and high water availability enhanced individual and demographic parameters. Moreover, the impact of water availability was scale independent as local rainfall and La Niña induced flooding compensated each other. When water availability was low, however, extremely high temperatures delayed body growth and sexual maturity while survival of individuals and population sizes remained stable. This suggests a trade‐off with traits at the individual level that may potentially buffer the consequences of adverse climatic conditions at the population level. Moreover, hot temperatures did not impact nocturnal nor diurnal behavior. Instead, only cool temperatures induced diurnal thermoregulatory behavior with individuals moving to exposed hollow branches and even outside tree hollows for sun‐basking during the day. Since diurnal behavioral thermoregulation likely induced costs on fitness, this could decrease performance at both individual and population level under cool temperatures. Our findings show that water availability rather than high temperature is the limiting factor in our focal population of G. variegata. In contrast to previous studies, we stress that drier rather than warmer conditions are expected to be detrimental for nocturnal desert reptiles. Identifying the actual limiting climatic factors at different scales and their functional interactions at different ecological levels is critical to be able to predict reliably future population dynamics and support conservation planning in arid ecosystems.

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Functional traits determine the different effects of prey, predators, and climatic extremes on desert reptiles

2019

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Terrestrial reptiles are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Their highest density and diversity can be found in hot drylands, ecosystems which demonstrate extreme climatic conditions. However, reptiles are not isolated systems but part of a large species assemblage with many trophic dependencies. While direct relations among climatic conditions, invertebrates, vegetation, or reptiles have already been explored, to our knowledge, species’ responses to direct and indirect pathways of multiple climatic and biotic factors and their interactions have rarely been examined comprehensively. We investigated direct and indirect effects of climatic and biotic parameters on the individual (body condition) and population level (occupancy) of eight abundant lizard species with different functional traits in an arid Australian lizard community using a 30‐yr multi‐trophic monitoring study. We used structural equation modeling to disentangle single and interactive effects. We then assessed whether species could be grouped into functional groups according to their functional traits and their responses to different parameters. We found that lizard species differed strongly in how they responded to climatic and biotic factors. However, the factors to which they responded seemed to be determined by their functional traits. While responses on body condition were determined by habitat, activity time, and prey, responses on occupancy were determined by habitat specialization, body size, and longevity. Our findings highlight the importance of indirect pathways through climatic and biotic interactions, which should be included into predictive models to increase accuracy when predicting species’ responses to climate change. Since one might never obtain all mechanistic pathways at the species level, we propose an approach of identifying relevant species traits that help grouping species into functional groups at different ecological levels, which could then be used for predictive modeling.

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Booming during a bust: Asynchronous population responses of arid zone lizards to climatic variables

Cited by 29 publications

References 53 publications

Has contemporary climate change played a role in population declines of the lizard Ctenophorus decresii from semi-arid Australia?

Has contemporary climate change played a role in population declines of the lizard Ctenophorus decresii from semi-arid Australia?

Some like it hot: from individual to population responses of an arboreal arid‐zone gecko to local and distant climate

Functional traits determine the different effects of prey, predators, and climatic extremes on desert reptiles

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