How are desert lizards impacted by increased temperatures resulting from climate change? This is what a recent study published in Science hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated how increased global temperatures are causing a “cost-of-living” crisis for desert lizards, which is the connection between its body temperature and the amount of food it needs to consume to survive. This study has the potential to help researchers, climate scientists, legislators, and the public better understand the short- and long-term impacts of climate change on global ecosystems.
For the study, the researchers analyzed biophysical models that were confirmed with 2,685 field observations for 10 different desert lizard species throughout African and Australian deserts to ascertain if climate change was causing an imbalance between the metabolism and food consumption in desert lizards. In the end, the researchers discovered that daytime desert lizards in Africa experienced increased energy budgets, or “cost-of-living”, compared to Australian desert lizards due to the former’s greater increase in temperatures. They also found that nighttime desert lizards were impacted by increased daytime temperatures by enabling increased time to forage for food.
Image of a thorny devil lizard in the desert. (Credit: Kris Wild)
“Cost-of-living is a concept humans are all too aware of, but the same concept applies to ectotherms – or cold-blooded animals – such as lizards. We just need to switch the currency from money to energy and realize that for lizards these costs and their ability to meet them depend on temperature,” said Dr. Kristoffer Wild, who is a postdoc at the University of Melbourne and lead author of the study. “Our study reveals that as deserts heat up, diurnal (day-active) lizards face a squeeze—needing more food while having less time to find it. On the other hand, nocturnal (night-active) lizards may benefit from warmer nights that allow more hunting time.”
Going forward, the researchers predict that African desert lizards will continue to experience a greater impact from increased temperatures compared to Australian desert lizards. Additionally, the researchers note that increased water and food scarcity in dry environments will further exacerbate the situation.
What new connections between climate change and desert lizards will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Science, EurekAlert!
