Sex-dependent shifts in body size and condition along replicated elevational gradients in a montane colonising ectotherm, the common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis).

In ectothermic animals, elevational gradients, such as mountainous environments, are often associated with shifts in body size, although patterns differ across taxa and contexts. Mountain landscapes are characterised by relatively rapid shifts in biotic and abiotic conditions along an elevational gradient, commonly referred to as elevational zonation. Such zonation can reduce the geographic scale at which organisms experience the effects of climate change.

TORPP - Turtles, One Health Research & Plastic Pollution: A multidisciplinary consortium to evaluate the environmental and health impact of Micro/NanoPlastics (MNPs) pollution.

Although the World Health Organization characterizes a One Health concern as one in which there is the capability to incorporate numerous disciplines to tackle health challenges threatening humans, animals and ecosystems, scientific efforts frequently remain compartmentalized. Here we report an original consortium, TORPP, spanning 16 disciplines, focused on Micro/NanoPlastics (MNPs) pollution as a One Health concern. Whereas the MNP topic has been largely studied in marine ecology, research effort remains scarce in human medicine.

Embryonic and juvenile snakes (Natrix maura, Linnaeus 1758) compensate for high elevation hypoxia via shifts in cardiovascular physiology and metabolism.

The colonization of novel environments requires a favorable response to conditions never, or rarely, encountered in recent evolutionary history. For example, populations colonizing upslope habitats must cope with lower atmospheric pressure at elevation, and thus reduced oxygen availability. The embryo stage in oviparous organisms is particularly susceptible, given its lack of mobility and limited gas exchange via diffusion through the eggshell and membranes.

Lizards from warm and declining populations are born with extremely short telomeres.

Aging is the price to pay for acquiring and processing energy through cellular activity and life history productivity. Climate warming can exacerbate the inherent pace of aging, as illustrated by a faster erosion of protective telomere DNA sequences. This biomarker integrates individual pace of life and parental effects through the germline, but whether intra- and intergenerational telomere dynamics underlies population trends remains an open question.

Viability, behavior, and color expression in the offspring of matings between common wall lizard color morphs.

Color polymorphisms are widely studied to identify the mechanisms responsible for the origin and maintenance of phenotypic variability in nature. Two of the mechanisms of balancing selection currently thought to explain the long-term persistence of polymorphisms are the evolution of alternative phenotypic optima through correlational selection on suites of traits including color and heterosis. Both of these mechanisms can generate differences in offspring viability and fitness arising from different morph combinations.

Impacts of temperature on O consumption of the Pyrenean brook newt (Calotriton asper) from populations along an elevational gradient.

Global warming impacts biodiversity worldwide, leading to species' adaptation, migration, or extinction. The population's persistence depends on the maintenance of essential activities, which is notably driven by phenotypic adaptation to local environments. Metabolic rate - that increases with temperature in ectotherms - is a key physiological proxy for the energy available to fuel individuals' activities.

Metal(loid) pollution, not urbanisation nor parasites predicts low body condition in a wetland bioindicator snake.

Urban ecosystems and remnant habitat 'islands' therein, provide important strongholds for many wildlife species including those of conservation significance. However, the persistence of these habitats can be undermined if their structure and function are too severely disrupted. Urban wetlands, specifically, are usually degraded by a monoculture of invasive vegetation, disrupted hydrology, and chronic-contamination from a suite of anthropogenic pollutants.

Thermal-metabolic phenotypes of the lizard Podarcis muralis differ across elevation, but converge in high-elevation hypoxia.

In response to a warming climate, many montane species are shifting upslope to track the emergence of preferred temperatures. Characterizing patterns of variation in metabolic, physiological and thermal traits along an elevational gradient, and the plastic potential of these traits, is necessary to understand current and future responses to abiotic constraints at high elevations, including limited oxygen availability. We performed a transplant experiment with the upslope-colonizing common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis) in which we measured nine aspects of thermal physiology and aerobic capacity in lizards from replicate low- (400 m above sea level, ASL) and high-elevation (1700 m ASL) populations.

Population Genomics of Wall Lizards Reflects the Dynamic History of the Mediterranean Basin.

The Mediterranean Basin has experienced extensive change in geology and climate over the past six million years. Yet, the relative importance of key geological events for the distribution and genetic structure of the Mediterranean fauna remains poorly understood. Here, we use population genomic and phylogenomic analyses to establish the evolutionary history and genetic structure of common wall lizards (Podarcis muralis).

Bioindicator snake shows genomic signatures of natural and anthropogenic barriers to gene flow.

Urbanisation alters landscapes, introduces wildlife to novel stressors, and fragments habitats into remnant 'islands'. Within these islands, isolated wildlife populations can experience genetic drift and subsequently suffer from inbreeding depression and reduced adaptive potential. The Western tiger snake (Notechis scutatus occidentalis) is a predator of wetlands in the Swan Coastal Plain, a unique bioregion that has suffered substantial degradation through the development of the city of Perth, Western Australia.

PLASMA BIOCHEMISTRY PROFILES OF WILD WESTERN TIGER SNAKES (NOTECHIS SCUTATUS OCCIDENTALIS) BEFORE AND AFTER SIX MONTHS OF CAPTIVITY.

Urban wildlife often suffer poorer health than their counterparts living in more pristine environments due to exposure to anthropogenic stressors such as habitat degradation and environmental contamination. As a result, the health of urban versus nonurban snakes might be assessed by differences in their plasma biochemistries. We compared the plasma profiles of western tiger snakes (Notechis scutatus occidentalis) from a heavily urbanized wetland and a natural, nonurbanized wetland.

Snake scales record environmental metal(loid) contamination.

Wetland snakes, as top predators, are becoming globally recognised as bioindicators of wetland contamination. Livers are the traditional test organ for contaminant exposure in organisms, but research is moving towards a preference for non-lethal tissue sampling. Snake scales can be used as an indicator of exposure, as many metals bind to the keratin.

A simple ATAC-seq protocol for population epigenetics.

We describe here a protocol for the generation of sequence-ready libraries for population epigenomics studies, and the analysis of alignment results. We show that the protocol can be used to monitor chromatin structure changes in populations when exposed to environmental cues. The protocol is a streamlined version of the Assay for transposase accessible chromatin with high-throughput sequencing (ATAC-seq) that provides a positive display of accessible, presumably euchromatic regions.

Comment on "Forest microclimate dynamics drive plant responses to warming".

Zellweger (Reports, 15 May 2020, p. 772) claimed that forest plant communities' response to global warming is primarily controlled by microclimate dynamics. We show that community thermophilization is poorly explained by the underlying components of microclimate, and that global warming primarily controls the climatic lag of plant communities.

No evidence for differential sociosexual behavior and space use in the color morphs of the European common wall lizard ().

Explaining the evolutionary origin and maintenance of color polymorphisms is a major challenge in evolutionary biology. Such polymorphisms are commonly thought to reflect the existence of alternative behavioral or life-history strategies under negative frequency-dependent selection. The European common wall lizard exhibits a striking ventral color polymorphism that has been intensely studied and is often assumed to reflect alternative reproductive strategies, similar to the iconic "rock-paper-scissors" system described in the North American lizard .

Vertical Transmission of a Nematode from Female Lizards to the Brains of Their Offspring.

Parasites have evolved a diversity of lifestyles that exploit the biology of their hosts. Some nematodes that parasitize mammals pass via the placenta or milk from one host to another. Similar cases of vertical transmission have never been reported in avian and nonavian reptiles, suggesting that egg laying may constrain the means of parasite transmission.

The Broad-Scale Analysis of Metals, Trace Elements, Organochlorine Pesticides and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Wetlands Along an Urban Gradient, and the Use of a High Trophic Snake as a Bioindicator.

Wetlands and their biodiversity are constantly threatened by contaminant pollution from urbanisation. Despite evidence suggesting that snakes are good bioindicators of environmental health, the bioaccumulation of contaminants in reptiles is poorly researched in Australia. We conducted the first broad-scale analysis of 17 metals and trace elements, 21 organochlorine pesticides, and 14 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the sediments (4 samples per site, December 2018) from four wetlands along an urban gradient in Perth, Western Australia, and from the livers (5 livers per site, February-April 2019) of western tiger snakes Notechis scutatus occidentalis captured at those sites.

Investigating the role of urbanisation, wetlands and climatic conditions in nematode parasitism in a large Australian elapid snake.

Tiger snakes () in wetlands of South-West Western Australia (SW WA) are commonly parasitised by the nematode . Host-parasite interactions are complex and can potentially be impacted by factors such as urbanisation or climate. We assessed whether urbanisation, distance to wetland sites, and climatic factors have influenced parasitism in tiger snakes from specimens collected over the last century.

Isolation and characterization of fourteen polymorphic microsatellite markers in the viperine snake .

Nineteen polymorphic microsatellite loci were identified and developed for . Polymorphism was assessed for 120 individuals sampled across four sampling sites from the French Pyrenees Mountains. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 3 to 15, and expected heterozygosity per locus ranged from 0.

Pattern matters: Snakes exhibiting triangular and diamond-shaped skin patterns modulate electrophysiological activity in human visual cortex.

The neural and perceptual mechanisms that support the efficient visual detection of snakes in humans are still not fully understood. According to the Snake Detection Theory, selection pressures posed by snakes on early primates have shaped the development of the visual system. Previous studies in humans have investigated early visual electrophysiological activity in response to snake images vs.

Lizards at the Peak: Physiological Plasticity Does Not Maintain Performance in Lizards Transplanted to High Altitude.

Warming climates are facilitating the range expansion of many taxa to habitats that were formerly thermally inhospitable, including to higher latitudes and elevations. The potential for such colonization, however, varies widely among taxa. Because environmental factors may interact to affect colonization potential, an understanding of underlying physiological and behavioral mechanisms is necessary to predict how species will respond to potentially suitable habitats.

Variation of preferred body temperatures along an altitudinal gradient: A multi-species study.

Temperature affects the physiological functions of ectotherms. To maintain optimal body temperature and ensure physiological performance, these organisms can use behavioral adjustments to keep the body temperature in their specific temperature range, so-called preferred temperature (T). It is therefore crucial to describe and understand how T vary within and amongst populations to predict the effects of climate change of altitudinal range shifts in organisms.