Phenology and the physiological niche are co-adapted in a desert dwelling lizard

1. A major goal of seasonal biology is to understand how selection on phenology and the physiological niche interact. In oviparous species, fitness variation across the growing season suggests that phenological shifts will alter selective environments experienced by embryos. We hypothesize that physiology could become co-adapted with phenology; such that embryos perform better in the environmental conditions they are adapted to compared to embryos adapted to other environments (temporal matching). 2. Here, we tested for temporal matching to seasonal changes in the environmental temperatures with toad-headed lizard, Phrynocephalus przewalskii, which inhabits the temperate desert steppe of China. We used a split clutch reciprocal experiment, by incubating eggs from early- and late-breeding females at rising and falling temperature regimes respectively, to separate the influence of intrinsic (genetic and parental) versus extrinsic factors (developmental plasticity or acclimatization) on th...1. 季节生物学（seasonal biology）的核心目标之一，是阐明物候（phenology）所受的选择压力与生理生态位（physiological niche）之间的相互作用机制。对于卵生动物（oviparous species）而言，生长季内的适合度（fitness）变异表明，物候转变会改变胚胎所经历的选择环境。我们提出如下假说：生理机能可与物候发生协同适应，即相较于适应其他环境的胚胎，适应特定环境的胚胎在对应环境条件下的表现更为优异，此即为时间匹配效应（temporal matching）。2. 本研究以栖息于中国温带荒漠草原的普氏沙蜥（Phrynocephalus przewalskii）为研究对象，检验其与环境温度季节变化间的时间匹配效应。我们采用分窝交叉孵化实验（split clutch reciprocal experiment），将早繁殖雌体与晚繁殖雌体所产的卵分别置于升温与降温的温度处理方案下孵化，以此分离内在因素（遗传与亲代来源）与外在因素（发育可塑性（developmental plasticity）或驯化（acclimatization））对……