Gimme Shelter: Habitat Use of Lizards in a Warming Arid City
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Lizards are highly vulnerable to climate change. Modeling studies have predicted that over one third of the world’s lizard populations are expected to go extinct within the next sixty years as elevated temperatures reduce the time available for critical activities such as foraging and reproduction. This effect likely varies between habitats and may be exacerbated in urban areas, which often experience temperatures several degrees warmer than their surroundings. Understanding the interactive effects of habitat and temperature on lizard activity is therefore essential to lizard conservation in urban settings. In this study, I analyze the results of 819 lizard surveys conducted in multiple habitats over 21 years in the warming desert city of Tucson, Arizona. I document elevated abundances of several lizard species in forested and riprap habitats relative to nearby open areas. I also show that at least three out of Tucson’s five most common lizard species are active at different temperatures in different habitats. Activity is generally high at low temperatures in riprap, intermediate temperatures in open habitats, and high temperatures in forested habitats, with important species-specific variability. In particular, I show that forested habitats promote higher activity than open habitats at elevated temperatures for at least one terrestrial species vulnerable to climate warming. I suggest that heterogeneous urban habitats can facilitate continuous lizard activity across a range of air temperatures, which is critical to ameliorate the effects of ongoing and future climate warming on lizard populations.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Publication date | November 16, 2022 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Wyman, Jules |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor | Dirzo, Rodolfo |
| Thesis advisor | O'Connell, Lauren |
| Thesis advisor | McFadden, Tyler |
| Advisor | Rosen, Philip |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Biology |
Subjects
| Subject | Biology |
|---|---|
| Subject | Ecology |
| Subject | Herpetology |
| Subject | Lizards |
| Subject | Climatic changes |
| Subject | Global warming |
| Subject | Wildlife conservation |
| Subject | Habitat conservation |
| Subject | Biodiversity conservation |
| Subject | Urbanization |
| Subject | Urban ecology (Biology) |
| Subject | Arizona |
| Subject | Arizona > Pima County |
| Subject | Arizona > Tucson |
| Subject | North America > Sonoran Desert |
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
Access conditions
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Wyman, J. and Dirzo, R. (2023). Gimme Shelter: Habitat Use of Lizards in a Warming Arid City. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/fn477wd8512. https://doi.org/10.25740/fn477wd8512.
Collection
Undergraduate Theses, Department of Biology, 2022-2023
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- Contact
- julesw@stanford.edu
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