Environmental causes of between-population difference in growth rate of a high-altitude lizard.

BMC Ecol

Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.

Published: September 2018

AI Article Synopsis

  • Ectothermic animals in cold regions usually grow slower due to limited activity and food, but Qinghai toad-headed lizards grow faster at high elevation compared to low elevation.
  • High-elevation juvenile lizards had greater growth rates in the wild, though laboratory growth rates were similar across elevations, and they maintained higher body temperatures despite similar air temperatures.
  • The growth difference is likely due to environmental factors like better food availability and higher body temperatures, rather than genetic differences.

Article Abstract

Background: Ectothermic animals living in cold (high latitude or high elevation) regions are predicted to grow slower due to limited thermal opportunities for activity and food resources than those living in warm regions. However, the Qinghai toad-headed lizards (Phrynocephalus vlangalii) grow faster and reach a larger adult size at a high-elevation site than at a low-elevation site. In this study, we aimed to identify the genetic and environmental causes of this between-population difference in growth rate by conducting mark-recapture and common garden experiments on juvenile growth rate, and investigating the thermal environment, lizard body temperature, potential prey availability at the two elevation sites.

Results: Compared with low-elevation individuals, high-elevation juvenile lizards had higher growth rates in the field, but grew at similar rates in the laboratory. High-elevation lizards had higher active body temperatures than low-elevation lizards despite similar air temperatures in the period of field investigation. The high-elevation site had relatively more and larger preys than the low-elevation site.

Conclusions: Inter-population difference in growth rate of P. vlangalii may primarily result from developmental plasticity in response to the difference in environmental resources, rather than genetic differentiation. The higher growth rate of high-elevation lizards is likely associated with higher potential food availability and higher active body temperatures.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6154872PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12898-018-0194-8DOI Listing

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