Climatic Variability Shapes Plasticity of Hydric and Thermal Physiology in Tropical Geckos

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint. You must log in to post a comment. There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article. This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint. Add a Comment You must log in to post a comment. Comments There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article. Phenotypic plasticity in reptiles is a key mechanism enabling individuals to maintain and optimize physiological responses to changing environments. The ability to adjust metabolic rates and thermal physiology in response to seasonal changes is known to be central to the physiological ecology of some reptiles, but less is known about reptiles’ ability to exhibit seasonal flexibility in rates of evaporative water loss (EWL). Physiological acclimatization to seasonal changes was measured in six species of geckos in the genus Gehyra from the highly seasonal tropics of northern Australia. Four species from a mesic, more thermally stable site did not have seasonal differences in thermal preference (Tp), but Tp was significantly lower during the cooler dry season in three species from a semi-arid, more thermally variable site. EWL was significantly lower (42% to 78%) during the dry season compared to the wet season for all species. For most species, EWL decreased rapidly from wet to early dry season, then continued to a minimum in the late dry season. There was no relationship between extent of plasticity and geographic range size. These results demonstrate high plasticity and imply a cost to maintaining low EWL, the basis of which requires further study. https://doi.org/10.32942/X21901 Life Sciences evaporative water loss, geckos, physiological plasticity, reptiles, seasonal plasticity, seasonal tropics, thermal preference Published: 2024-06-18 05:39 CC-BY Attribution-No Derivatives 4.0 International Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Data and Code Availability Statement: Data are available from Figshare: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25116158. Language: English