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Deserts have always amazed researchers due to their high diversity of habitats, where plant and animal species have been able to adapt and diversify, even when these areas impose several constraints on an organism's activity patterns. In particular, deserts support several lizard species adapted to the thermal and water restrictions found in such biomes. Although several studies have attempted to understand how lizard species might respond to water deficit or drought in deserts, few have addressed how this might vary along a latitudinal gradient. This raises the question of whether physiological buffering of the organism or the climatic environment affects water loss in lizards. Here, we used six populations of <i>Urosaurus ornatus</i> to test whether water loss is influenced more by the intrinsic physiology of the lizard or by the climatic niche. We found that water loss is primarily influenced by the climatic niche of the lizard. However, future studies should focus on how microclimatic variables can influence water loss in organisms found across large latitudinal gradients.

沙漠因其极高的生境多样性一直令研究者着迷——尽管此类生境对生物的活动模式施加了多重限制，动植物物种仍得以在此适应并完成物种分化。尤为值得关注的是，沙漠生态系统孕育了诸多适应极端温度与水分限制的蜥蜴类群。尽管已有多项研究尝试阐释蜥蜴物种如何应对沙漠中的水分匮乏或干旱，但极少有研究关注这一响应如何沿纬度梯度发生变异。这一研究缺口引出了一个核心科学问题：是生物体的生理缓冲能力，还是其所处的气候环境，对蜥蜴的水分流失起到主导调控作用？本研究以6个种群的Urosaurus ornatus为实验材料，检验蜥蜴的水分流失主要受其内在生理特性影响，还是由其气候生态位决定。研究结果显示，蜥蜴的水分流失主要由其气候生态位主导。不过，未来的研究应聚焦于微气候变量如何对分布于大范围纬度梯度中的生物的水分流失产生影响。