The Thermal Biology of Takydromus kuehnei Indicates Tropical Lizards From High Elevation Have Not Been Severely Threatened by Climate Change

Shiang Tao,Jichao Wang,Kunming Cheng,Baojun Sun,Xingzhi Han,Rongquan Zheng,Xinghan Li

doi:10.3389/fevo.2021.767102

Abstract

Climate change poses different threats to animals across latitudes. Tropical species have been proposed to be more vulnerable to climate change. However, the responses of animals from tropical mountains to thermal variation and climate change have been scarcely studied. Here, we investigated the thermal biology traits of a tropical lizard (Takydromus kuehnei) distributed at high elevations (&gt;950 m) and evaluated the vulnerabilities of T. kuehnei by thermal biology traits, thermal safety margin, and thermoregulatory effectiveness. The average active body temperatures of T. kuehnei in the field were 26.28°C and 30.65°C in April and June, respectively. The selected body temperature was 33.23°C, and the optimal temperature for locomotion was 30.60°C. The critical thermal minimum and critical thermal maximum temperatures were 4.79°C and 43.37°C, respectively. Accordingly, the thermal safety margin (1.23°C) and thermoregulatory effectiveness (1.23°C) predicted that T. kuehnei distributed in tropical mountains were not significantly depressed by environmental temperatures. This study implies that high-elevation species in tropical regions may not be severely threatened by ongoing climate change and highlights the importance of thermal biology traits in evaluating the vulnerability of species to climate change.

Highlights

Climate change has negatively affected animal distribution and abundance (Root et al, 2003; Thomas et al, 2004; Medina et al, 2016)
By comparing the thermal biology traits, thermoregulatory effectiveness, and thermal-safety margins (TSM) with published data across latitudes (e.g., Zhang and Ji, 2004; Sunday et al, 2014; Hao et al, 2020), we aimed to evaluate the vulnerabilities of tropical species (i.e., T. kuehnei in this study) from high elevation to climate change and test whether mountains are potential refuges for tropical species under ongoing climate change
If there was a significant difference between sexes in thermal biology traits, we supplementarily show the data with males and females separately

Summary

Introduction

Climate change has negatively affected animal distribution and abundance (Root et al, 2003; Thomas et al, 2004; Medina et al, 2016). Animals can migrate toward high latitudes and high elevations to avoid the risk of being threatened by climate change (e.g., Forero-Medina et al, 2011; Freeman et al, 2018). Tropical mountains may provide refuge for tropical animals to escape from exposure to warming temperatures (Bonebrake and Deutsch, 2012). It is largely unknown whether the highelevation species in tropical regions are depressed by ongoing climate change (Freeman et al, 2018). Understanding the vulnerabilities of animals from tropical mountains is important in revealing the thermal adaptation of tropical species at high elevations and evaluating the availabilities of migrating toward high elevations to escape from climate change (Ghalambor et al, 2006)

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