Frequency-dependent and correlational selection pressures have conflicting consequences for assortative mating in a color-polymorphic lizard, Uta stansburiana

Acknowledgments We would like to thank the numerous undergraduate researchers involved with this project for their invaluable assistance in lizard rearing and data collection. We also thank D. Haisten, A. Runemark, Y. Takahashi, and M. Verzijden for insightful comments on the manuscript. This project was funded by National Science Foundation DEBOS-15973 to A.G.M. and B.R.S.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Quantum Structure in Competing Lizard Communities

Almost two decades of research on applications of the mathematical formalism of quantum theory as a modeling tool in domains different from the micro-world has given rise to many successful applications in situations related to human behavior and thought, more specifically in cognitive processes of decision-making and the ways concepts are combined into sentences. In this article, we extend this approach to animal behavior, showing that an analysis of an interactive situation involving a mating competition between certain lizard morphs allows to identify a quantum theoretic structure. More in particular, we show that when this lizard competition is analyzed structurally in the light of a compound entity consisting of subentities, the contextuality provided by the presence of an underlying rock-paper-scissors cyclic dynamics leads to a violation of Bell's inequality, which means it is of a non-classical type. We work out an explicit quantum-mechanical representation in Hilbert space for the lizard situation and show that it faithfully models a set of experimental data collected on three throat-colored morphs of a specific lizard species. Furthermore, we investigate the Hilbert space modeling, and show that the states describing the lizard competitions contain entanglement for each one of the considered confrontations of lizards with different competing strategies, which renders it no longer possible to interpret these states of the competing lizards as compositions of states of the individual lizards.Comment: 28 page

Cooling requirements fueled the collapse of a desert bird community from climate change.

Climate change threatens global biodiversity by increasing extinction risk, yet few studies have uncovered a physiological basis of climate-driven species declines. Maintaining a stable body temperature is a fundamental requirement for homeothermic animals, and water is a vital resource that facilitates thermoregulation through evaporative cooling, especially in hot environments. Here, we explore the potential for thermoregulatory costs to underlie the community collapse of birds in the Mojave Desert over the past century in response to climate change. The probability of persistence was lowest for species occupying the warmest and driest sites, which imposed the greatest cooling costs. We developed a general model of heat flux to evaluate whether water requirements for evaporative cooling contributed to species' declines by simulating thermoregulatory costs in the Mojave Desert for 50 bird species representing the range of observed declines. Bird species' declines were positively associated with climate-driven increases in water requirements for evaporative cooling and exacerbated by large body size, especially for species with animal-based diets. Species exhibiting reductions in body size across their range saved up to 14% in cooling costs and experienced less decline than species without size reductions, suggesting total cooling costs as a mechanism underlying Bergmann's rule. Reductions in body size, however, are unlikely to offset the 50 to 78% increase in cooling costs threatening desert birds from future climate change. As climate change spreads warm, dry conditions across the planet, water requirements are increasingly likely to drive population declines, providing a physiological basis for climate-driven extinctions

Decreased Sprint Speed as a Cost of Reproduction in the Lizard Scelopours Occidentalis: Variation Among Populations

Decreased mobility of gravid females is thought to be an important cost of reproduction in lizards. We measured sprint speeds of female western fence lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis Baird and Girard) before and after they had oviposited. Females from two California populations were about 20% slower when gravid, females from an Oregon population were about 30% slower, and females from a Washington population were about 45% slower, compared to their speeds after recovering from reproduction. The decrease in sprint speed persisted for several weeks after oviposition, suggesting that reproduction impairs sprint performance by affecting body condition in addition to the burdening effect of eggs. Oregon and Washington females carried more mass (both somatic and clutch mass) per unit body length than California females. On the shorter bodies of Oregon and Washington lizards, eggs may interfere with the mechanics of running, in addition to their effect on the total mass of the female. In addition, gravid females from Washington had significantly higher reproductive investment (mass of clutch relative to the mass of the female after oviposition) than Oregon and California populations. Greater reproductive investment by Washington females increases the burden carried per unit of body length; we suggest this further impairs sprint performance. Decrements in sprint speed were not significantly correlated with level of reproductive investment (per unit body mass) among females within any of the study populations. However, the burden carried per unit body length was correlated with the sprint speed decrement among gravid females from Oregon. Comparisons within and among populations suggest that differences in morphology among northern and southern populations interact with reproductive investment to produce interpopulation differences in sprint performance for gravid females

Genetic and Maternal Determinants of Effective Dispersal: The Effect of Sire Genotype and Size at Birth in Side-Blotched Lizards

We assessed genetic factors on progeny dispersal due to sire color morph genotypes in a field pedigree and lab crosses, and we measured maternal effects by studying both natural and experimentally induced egg size variation. Progeny were released into nature upon hatching, but we recorded dispersal distance at maturity, which reflects effective dispersal after viability selection has run its course. Progeny dispersal was significantly affected by sire genotype. Progeny from orange sires dispersed the farthest. Progeny from blue sires dispersed intermediate distances. Progeny from yellow sires were the most philopatric. Sire genotype effects interacted with egg size. In particular, enlarged progeny from orange sires dispersed farther, while enlarged progeny from yellow sires were more philopatric. Progeny from blue sires were unaffected by egg size manipulations. Egg manipulations and natural variation generally had concordant effects indicative of causation. However, asymmetry of gigantization and miniaturization on progeny dispersal from some sire genotypes suggest the involvement of maternal factors besides egg size. Results of laboratory crosses with progeny released into nature confirmed key sire genotype effects and identified additional maternal effects that modulated dispersal as a function of progeny gender. We discuss the adaptive implications of progeny dispersal in the context of male (rock‐paper‐scissors) and female strategies (r‐ and K‐density cycle) that are associated with color morphs

The developmental, physiological, neural, and genetical causes and consequences of frequency-dependent selection in the wild.

Abstract We outline roles of frequency-dependent selection (FDS) in coadaptation and coevolutionary change. Coadaptation and coevolution occur because correlational selection (CS) and correlated evolution couple many traits. CS arises from causal interactions between traits expressed in two or more interactors, which invariably involve different traits (signalers-receivers). Thus, the causes of CS are due to FDS acting on trait interactions. Negative FDS, a rare advantage, is often coupled to positive FDS generating complex dynamics and FD cycles. Neural mechanisms of learning and perception create analogous routes by which traits are reinforced in cognitive and perceptual systems of interactors, substituting for positive FDS. FDS across all levels of biological organization is thus best understood as proximate causes that link interactors and shape genetic correlations within and among interactors on long timescales, or cognitive trait correlations within interactors on short timescales. We find rock-paper-scissors dynamics are common in nature

Changes in female reproduction and body condition in an endemic lizard, Phymaturus Spectabilis, following the Puyehue volcanic ashfall event

Puyehue is a largely basaltic stratovolcano located in the southern volcanic zone of the Andes, with an irregular inter-occurrence intervals of eruption that affects the ecology of the native communities. The latest Puyehue eruption occurred in June 2011and dispersed about 100 M tons of pyroclastic materials to the Patagonia steppe of Argentina, due to the West–East predominant winds, affecting an area of over 7.5 M ha. Herein we report the changes in the reproductive cycle of females and body condition of adult males, females, juveniles, and newborns of Phymaturus spectabilis, a lizard with a vulnerable conservation status, following volcanic ash accumulation in Argentinian Patagonian steppe. This microendemic species inhabits specific volcanic rocky outcrops, in cold and arid environments of Ingeniero Jacobacci, Río Negro, Argentina. We used the body condition index, an useful method for quantifying the energy reserves of animals, and we studied this index and the female reproductive cycle during the first (years 2011–2012) and the second (years 2012–2013) activity season posteruption, and discussed the results in relation to the body condition and the reproductive cycle studied before eruption (years 2006–2011). We found that only 12% of adult females were reproductive during the first activity season, which indicates that most P. spectabilis, skipped reproduction the year of eruption. In contrast, during the second activity season 83% of adult females were reproductive. However clutch size was changed to one to three offspring, instead of the typical two offspring reported for P. spectabilis before the Puyehue eruption, which is also characteristic of the Phymaturus genus. In addition, body condition of offspring born during the second activity season was significantly lower than offspring born before the eruption. We found that body condition of juveniles and adult males was significantly lower during the first activity season than before eruption and significantly higher during the second year. The lack of improvement in the body condition of non-reproductive females during the first years might explain the skip in the reproduction given that a good body condition is crucial for reproduction. These results suggest that the ash fall caused changes in the reproduction and the body condition of a population of a lizard, P. spectabilis, during the first activity season. However, the population showed rapid recovery during the second activity season post-eruption, indicating heretofore unobserved plasticity in litter size.Fil: Boretto, Jorgelina Mariela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación En Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue; ArgentinaFil: Cabezas, Facundo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación En Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue; ArgentinaFil: Kubisch, Erika Leticia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación En Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue; ArgentinaFil: Sinervo, Barry. University Of California; Estados UnidosFil: Ibarguengoytía, Nora. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación En Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue; Argentin

Direct Fitness Correlates and Thermal Consequences of Facultative Aggregation in a Desert Lizard

Social aggregation is a common behavioral phenomenon thought to evolve through adaptive benefits to group living. Comparing fitness differences between aggregated and solitary individuals in nature – necessary to infer an evolutionary benefit to living in groups – has proven difficult because communally-living species tend to be obligately social and behaviorally complex. However, these differences and the mechanisms driving them are critical to understanding how solitary individuals transition to group living, as well as how and why nascent social systems change over time. Here we demonstrate that facultative aggregation in a reptile (the Desert Night Lizard, Xantusia vigilis) confers direct reproductive success and survival advantages and that thermal benefits of winter huddling disproportionately benefit small juveniles, which can favor delayed dispersal of offspring and the formation of kin groups. Using climate projection models, however, we estimate that future aggregation in night lizards could decline more than 50% due to warmer temperatures. Our results support the theory that transitions to group living arise from direct benefits to social individuals and offer a clear mechanism for the origin of kin groups through juvenile philopatry. The temperature dependence of aggregation in this and other taxa suggests that environmental variation may be a powerful but underappreciated force in the rapid transition between social and solitary behavior

Reproductive biology of Phymaturus Spectabilis (Liolaemidae): females skip reproduction in cold and harsh environments of Patagonia, Argentina

Herein, we describe the reproductive biology of Phymaturus spectabilis, a lizard species that inhabits rocky outcrops in cold and arid environments of the Patagonian steppe of Argentina. We studied male and female reproductive cycles, mean annual reproductive output, allometric changes during ontogeny, and sexual dimorphism, mainly with a non-invasive methodology used for the first time in Argentina. We corroborated results from this non-invasive method with data from euthanized individuals through observation, classification, and measurement of the female reproductive tract and ovaries and through examination of the histology of testicles and epididymis in males. The presence of males with spermatozoa in the epididymis from early spring and gravid females from mid spring shows that mating, ovulation, and egg development occur at the beginning of the activity season. Parturition occurs in midsummer to two offspring. Our finding that half of the adult females were in a non-reproductive condition during the entire reproductive season, simultaneously with vitellogenic or gravid females, demonstrates that not all of the adult females in this population reproduce every year. Females exhibited an annual to biennial cycle, sometimes skipping a year of reproduction, while males exhibited an annual cycle. Phymaturus spectabilis show the common pattern of low mean annual reproductive output found in the genus Phymaturus. The low frequency of reproduction and the low mean annual reproductive output are risk factors for this species. These life-history traits, together with its microendemic character (as it is restricted to an area of 70 km2 of fragmented and rocky plateaus in the poorly protected steppe of Patagonia Argentina), mean that this species is of concern.Fil: Boretto, Jorgelina Mariela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación En Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue; ArgentinaFil: Cabezas, Facundo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación En Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue; ArgentinaFil: Tappari, Fabián. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia; ArgentinaFil: Méndez de la Cruz, Fausto. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Sinervo, Barry. University Of California; Estados UnidosFil: Scolaro, Jose Alejandro. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Ibarguengoytía, Nora. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación En Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue; Argentin