Meeting Abstract
Human-induced environmental change is currently impacting animal populations on a global scale. For example, the rise and spread of urban areas has drastically altered the environmental conditions experienced by organisms inhabiting cities. These novel conditions may promote change in key phenotypic traits of urban wildlife in order to increase fitness. Conversely, certain traits may remain unchanged if they are constrained (e.g., through genetic correlations with other traits) or already sufficient for persistence under these new conditions. Previous work in southeast Florida has shown that brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) from urban environments are larger (i.e. snout-vent length) compared to conspecifics from nearby natural habitats. Additional work has revealed a positive relationship between anole body size and the abundance of its predator (i.e., the curly-tailed lizard, Leiocephalus carinatus). However, the mechanism(s) producing these patterns are unknown. To address this, we presented tethered brown anoles of varying sizes (i.e., SVL) to curly-tailed lizards in the field to assess whether larger anoles have a survival advantage over smaller ones. Indeed, smaller anoles were attacked at shorter latencies compared to larger ones. We are currently conducting a common garden experiment to determine whether body size differences among anoles from natural, urban, and urban with predator environments are genetically based. Urbanization is predicted to intensify in the coming decades and we must therefore work to characterize how urban areas influence animal communities to minimize declines in biodiversity.
