Meeting Abstract
Many important questions in science are based on fundamental queries. A fundamental question in ecology includes understanding the spatial and temporal patterns displayed by organisms, and defining the processes that generate those patterns. With respect to terrestrial vertebrates, understanding the effects of habitat variation and food availability requires a multi-year perspective, given the multi-year lifespans of vertebrates. Desert scrub locales are especially conducive to investigating how annual climate variation and prey availability affect the predator’s diet, habitat selection, and home range size. A useful study system for such work is the ant-eating specialist Desert Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma platyrhinos. We studied a population in three contrasting mesohabitats—dunes, flats and hardpan—in the Alvord Basin of southeastern Oregon, which is near the northern extent of the lizard species’ geographic range. For 18 years, habitat use of male and female lizards was investigated in early summer. Home range size and habitat use were quantified via radio-tracking and powder-tracking for 13 of 18 years. Annual variation in spatial patterns of prey diversity among habitats varying in shrub types and sizes were also measured and correlated to lizard locations and movements. The relationships elucidated will provide the basis for more integrative analyses of habitat use beyond prey availability, such as mate search, dispersal, antipredation and thermal constraints.
