Masters Degrees (Botany and Zoology)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Botany and Zoology) by Author "Basson, Christine Helene"

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    Thermal adaptation in the lizard Cordylus oelofseni : physiological and behavioural responses to temperature variation
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013-12) Basson, Christine Helene; Clusella-Trullas, Susana; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Science. Dept. of Botany and Zoology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As ectotherms, lizards are particularly vulnerable to changes in the thermal landscape and face extinction risk if they lack the capacity to rapidly adapt or behaviourally mitigate increasingly altered thermal environments. Theoretical models that predict lizards‟ response to climate change often fail to take into account the thermal characteristics of the microenvironment, the ability of lizards to behaviourally buffer climate variation in the habitat and the plastic nature of both behaviour and physiology over ecologically relevant time-scales. Here, I address this major knowledge gap using two separate research chapters in an experimental physiology approach. In Chapter 1, I investigated the temperature-dependence and plasticity of resting metabolic rate, water-loss rate and preferred body temperature of Cordylus oelofseni at several temporal scales (within and between seasons) and incorporated field observations to acquire a better understanding of this species‟ adaptive potential to buffer thermal changes in the habitat. Cordylus oelofseni showed plasticity of both behaviour and physiology in response to thermal acclimation, but relied on distinct strategies depending on the time-scale investigated. These results highlighted the complexity of underlying mechanisms used by these organisms to buffer temperature variation. In Chapter 2, I used an experimental approach to examine the energetic costs of thermoregulation in C. oelofseni and test the cost-benefit model of thermoregulation. This model‟s primary prediction states that lizards should thermoregulate carefully only when the associated costs are low. Using four enclosures that simulated different thermal qualities (temporal and spatial distributions of operative temperatures) in the habitat, I found limited support for the cost-benefit model. Lizards in the low-quality heterogeneous enclosures invested the same energetic effort and thermoregulated with similar overall accuracy as lizards in the high-quality heterogeneous enclosure. The costs incurred were not necessarily energetic, but reflected missed opportunities (e.g. less time to forage), something that, along with important interaction effects with body mass, deserves further attention when testing this model. Together, these results illustrate the importance of incorporating ecological reality at various time and spatial scales in order to make relevant predictions regarding the fate of lizards with projected climate change.