Meeting Abstract
An organism’s ability to thermoregulate affects many physiological traits in ectotherms. Therefore, thermal factors are paramount when considering behavior, activity time, body temperatures, energy budget, and performance capabilities. Thermoregulatory effectiveness refers to the improvement in accuracy of thermoregulation with respect to a non-thermoregulating model organism. We examined populations of the Florida Scrub Lizard Sceloporus woodi that live in two contrasting habitat types. Operative temperatures were measured using PVC ‘lizard’ models placed throughout two habitat types in Ocala National Forest. Here, this species’ habitat is maintained by either clear-cut logging in scrub stands, or prescribed burning in longleaf pine stands. Thermal quality of a habitat can be estimated via an index of how closely the available operative temperatures in a given habitat align with an animal’s preferred range of temperatures determined in a thermal gradient. Thus far, we have found that available operative temperatures are not different between longleaf and scrub habitats. However field active body temperatures are higher in animals occupying longleaf sites, indicating possible differences in thermoregulatory behaviors. Data on thermal quality of habitat and thermoregulatory effectiveness will also be examined to uncover how thermal opportunity influences thermoregulatory effectiveness and behavior.
