Meeting Abstract
Many organisms experience distinctly different abiotic environments across their lifetimes. For instance, in terrestrial oviparous species, developing embryos experience microclimates selected by their mothers without the opportunity for behavior to alleviate any stresses of that environment; whereas, adults are mobile and can use behavioral strategies to offset thermal and hydric stress. Further, as a consequence of body size, juveniles become more independent from environmental stresses as they grow to adulthood. With larger body size, physiological trade-offs can become more important in mediating stress. Here, we review data to explore how the relationships between the abiotic environment and trade offs between behavior and physiology shift across life stages in salamanders and lizards.
