Quantification of correlational selection on thermal physiology,thermoregulatory behavior,and energy metabolism in lizards |
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Authors: | Paulina Artacho Julia Saravia Beatriz Decencière Ferrandière Samuel Perret Jean‐François Le Galliard |
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Institution: | 1. Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Campus Isla Teja, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile;2. CNRS, UMR 7618, iEES Paris, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France;3. CNRS/ENS UMS 3194, CEREEP – Ecotron IleDeFrance, école Normale Supérieure, St‐Pierre‐lès‐Nemours, France |
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Abstract: | Phenotypic selection is widely accepted as the primary cause of adaptive evolution in natural populations, but selection on complex functional properties linking physiology, behavior, and morphology has been rarely quantified. In ectotherms, correlational selection on thermal physiology, thermoregulatory behavior, and energy metabolism is of special interest because of their potential coadaptation. We quantified phenotypic selection on thermal sensitivity of locomotor performance (sprint speed), thermal preferences, and resting metabolic rate in captive populations of an ectothermic vertebrate, the common lizard, Zootoca vivipara. No correlational selection between thermal sensitivity of performance, thermoregulatory behavior, and energy metabolism was found. A combination of high body mass and resting metabolic rate was positively correlated with survival and negatively correlated with fecundity. Thus, different mechanisms underlie selection on metabolism in lizards with small body mass than in lizards with high body mass. In addition, lizards that selected the near average preferred body temperature grew faster that their congeners. This is one of the few studies that quantifies significant correlational selection on a proxy of energy expenditure and stabilizing selection on thermoregulatory behavior. |
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Keywords: | Ecological energetics locomotor performances natural selection reptiles thermal coadaptation |
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