Trade-offs between water loss and gas exchange influence habitat suitability of a woodland salamander

1. Reversible acclimation increases resilience to environmental stress, but acclimation may have hidden costs due to underlying links between related physiological traits. Interactions between physiological traits might result in trade-offs that undermine whole-organism performance if the change in a related trait reduces the net benefits of acclimation or increases susceptibility to alternative environmental stressors. 2. Metabolic rate and water loss rate are two fundamental physiological traits that could interact due to their dependence on gas exchange across shared physical surfaces. Reductions in water loss rate in response to dehydration stress might reduce metabolic rate by constraining the flux of both water and oxygen. 3. We examined acclimation of metabolic rate and water loss rate using a species of woodland salamander (Plethodon metcalfi) in response to temperature and humidity using a full factorial experimental design. We controlled the evaporative demand of the air acros...