Meeting Abstract
Current work suggests that many lizard populations are experiencing negative impacts from ongoing climate change, possibly mediated through the reduction of time available to accomplish life activities such as foraging and breeding, as a result of warming environmental temperatures. Part of better understanding the mechanisms behind how lizards are impacted by climate change involves estimating how ecologically relevant metrics of performance are affected by temperature. We examined the thermal dependence of sprint speed for two species of African skink about which little is known: Sundevall’s writhing skink (Mochlus sundevalli) and sandfish (Scincus scincus). We acclimatized the lizards to 7 different temperatures (24, 27, 30, 33, 36, 39, and 42°C), and then used a high speed video system to record lizard sprinting down a linearly demarcated track. Here we present thermal optimal performance curves for these two ecologically distinct African lizard species, which can help inform models of lizard extinction risk in the face of global climate change.
