Meeting Abstract
Physiological changes in response to environmental cues are not uncommon. Temperature has a strong effect on many traits, such that traits follow stereotyped thermal performance curves in response to increasing temperature. The prairie lizard, an abundant ectotherm throughout the central United States, has thermally sensitive, blue abdominal and throat patches. Currently, the role of these patches is not well understood. In this study, we set out to investigate whether individual plasticity in patch color mimicked individual plasticity in sprint speed (do they covary?) and if the plasticity in these two patches signal redundant or complementary information, testing competing hypotheses suggested for the evolution of multiple signals. We found that although patch hue exhibited stereotyped thermal performance curves, thermal plasticity in patch color did not mimic thermal plasticity in performance at the individual level. But we did find strong support for the hypothesis suggesting that these two patches signal redundant information through covariation of color across temperatures. The importance of better understanding the function of individual variation cannot be overstated and, overall, more work is needed to better understand the ultimate mechanisms underlying signal plasticity in this species and others.
