How photoperiod influences body temperature selection in Lacerta viridis.

Abstract

European green lizards, Lacerta viridis, show a distinct annual cycle in their day and nighttime selected body temperature (T b) levels when monitored under natural photoperiod. The amplitude between daily photophase and scotophase temperatures varies throughout the year. Highest body temperatures with smallest day/night variation are selected from May through July. Throughout fall, the difference between day and nighttime selected T b levels increases. Lizards inevitably enter a state of winter dormancy which terminates daily rhythmicity patterns. Under natural photoperiodic conditions, cessation of dormancy occurs spontaneously by mid-March, regardless whether high temperatures are available or not. Lacerta viridis respond to an artificial long photoperiod (16 h light, 8 h dark) at all times of the year with modifications in both diel patterns and levels of selected T b to summer-like conditions. When, however, the natural photoperiod at different phases in the annual cycle is held constant for six to eight weeks, T b selection of Lacerta viridis also remains stable at the level corresponding to the prevailing photoperiod. These results implicate that the photoperiod is a more prominent Zeitgeber for seasonal cueing of temperature selection than has been surmised in the past. Further, we suggest that the large variations recorded in daily T b cycles do not imply that this lizard is an "imprecise" thermoregulator, but rather indicates an important integral process necessary for seasonal acclimatization.