Thermal physiology responds to interannual temperature shifts in a montane horned lizard, Phrynosoma orbiculare

As climate change marches on, rapidly rising temperatures shatter records every year, presenting ever‐growing physiological challenges to organisms worldwide. Ectotherms rely on behavioral and physiological plasticity to contend with environmental fluctuations. Nonetheless, our understanding of thermal plasticity has been largely limited to laboratory settings. Here, we test whether aspects of thermal physiology respond to interannual shifts in thermal environment in a natural population of Phrynosoma orbiculare, a montane horned lizard, from Hidalgo, Mexico. At our field site, 2019 was markedly warmer than the year that preceded it. We detected population‐level increases in three key thermal physiological traits: preferred temperature, the critical thermal minimum, and the critical thermal maximum. Thus, thermal phenotypes appear to shift in tandem in response to environmental fluctuations. A subset of individuals were resampled across years, allowing insight into plastic shifts within...

随着气候变化持续加剧，全球气温快速攀升并逐年打破纪录，给全球范围内的生物带来了日益严峻的生理挑战。变温动物（ectotherm）依靠行为与生理可塑性来应对环境波动。然而，目前学界对热可塑性的认知大多局限于实验室环境中。本研究以墨西哥伊达尔戈州的山地角蜥（*Phrynosoma orbiculare*）自然种群为对象，探究其热生理学相关性状是否会响应热环境的年际波动。在本次野外研究站点，2019年的气温显著高于前一年。我们观测到种群水平上三项关键热生理性状发生了显著提升：热偏好温度（preferred temperature）、临界最低温度（critical thermal minimum）与临界最高温度（critical thermal maximum）。由此可见，热表型似乎会随环境波动同步发生改变。我们对部分个体进行了跨年度重采样，得以深入解析个体层面的可塑性变化……