Abstract
The use of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) as a measure of developmental instability and its relationship to stress and fitness is highly controversial. We examined whether the selection of different FA indices and traits influences the results of FA analysis. We chose four meristic traits and three FA indices (two single-trait and two multiple-trait indices) to assess FA levels in the common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis) from three different habitat types (urban, suburban and natural). Urbanization has already been linked to developmental instability in P. muralis. We therefore expected to detect different FA levels among the habitats. However, we also wanted to see whether we obtained the same patterns using different indices and traits. Our results showed that different traits can yield different FA patterns between habitats. The only statistically significant difference between habitats was detected for the FA2 index in femoral pores. The highest level of FA was detected in the urban population, while the lowest level was in the natural population. It is clear that caution must be exerted when deciding on which traits and indices are to be used for FA analysis. [Projects of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. OI173043, Grant no. III43001]
Highlights
One of the biggest challenges in conservation biology is how to identify threatened populations before stress causes irreversible negative effects
The highest level of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) was detected in the urban population, in the suburban, while the lowest level was observed in the natural population.When comparing the results obtained with different FA indices, asimilar pattern of FA levels across different habitat types was observed (Fig. 1)
For supraciliar plates and sublabial plates, we detected the same pattern of FA levels between habitat types, while somewhat different patterns were observed for subdigital lamellae of fourth hindlimb toes and femoral pores
Summary
One of the biggest challenges in conservation biology is how to identify threatened populations before stress causes irreversible negative effects. The level of developmental instability could be a simple and early indicator of populations subjected to stress. The quantification of the degree of developmental stability is challenging because the lack of within-individual variation caused by perturbation has to be measured. In order to use developmental instability as an efficient early indicator of negative effects of stress on the organism, we assumed that (i) increasing levels of stress are accompanied by increasing levels of developmental instability, and that (ii) stress-induced changes as a result of developmental instability are first detected in behavioral or external morphology traits rather than in more direct fitness components (e.g. fecundity, survival) [3]
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