Modeling the effect of environmental temperatures, microhabitat, and behavioral thermoregulation on predicted activity patterns in a desert lizard across its thermally diverse distribution

Aim

Temperature plays an important role in determining distributions of ectothermic species, yet many ectotherms have wide distributions across diverse environmental conditions. Our goal was to model regional differences in annual and seasonal activity patterns among populations of Phrynosoma platyrhinos across its climatically diverse distribution. We hypothesize that microhabitat availability and behavioral thermoregulation will not mitigate large-scale climatic differences across the species’ distribution, resulting in alteration of activity patterns of populations.

Location

Western deserts of North America.

Taxon

Desert Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma platyrhinos)

Methods

We used biophysical models to 1) model microhabitat conditions at 31 localities across the species’ range, 2) model body temperature profiles of a theoretical lizard using microhabitat conditions, physiological and thermal parameters, and the ability of lizards to thermoregulate behaviorally, and...