Meeting Abstract

98.6  Thursday, Jan. 7  Why tropical forest lizards can’t take the heat HUEY, R.B.*; DEUTSCH, C.A.; TEWKSBURY, J.J; VITT, L.J.; HERTZ, P.E.; ALVAREZ PEREZ, H.J.; GARLAND, T.J., JR.; LISTER, B.C.; GORMAN, G.C.; Univ. of Washington, Seattle; Univ. of California, Los Angeles; Univ. of Washington, Seattle; Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman; Barnard College; Univ. of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras; Univ. of California, Riverside; Rensselaer Polytechnic Instit.; retired hueyrb@u.washington.edu

Although the rate of climate warming is relatively low in the tropics, recent studies suggest that tropical ectotherms (especially forest ones) will be especially vulnerable to warming. Field data (body and operative temperatures, reproductive condition) collected in the 1970s and 1980s in Puerto Rico are a rich resource for evaluating the impacts of climate warming on tropical Anolis lizards. We present simple simulations suggesting that warming will depress the physiological performance in summer but may enhance reproduction in winter. Warming may also enable open-habitat species to invade the forests and thus increase competition and predation on forest species. Thus tropical forest ectotherms may be vulnerable to the cascading physiological and ecological effects of climate warming.