Data from: Plasticity of thermoregulatory behaviour in response to the thermal environment by widespread and alpine reptile species

Phenotypic plasticity plays a central role in determining how organisms respond to environmental change over short timescales. Despite this, we know little about how phenotypic plasticity varies between populations or species. We tested the extent of plasticity in basking behaviour in low- and high-altitude populations of two widespread lowland and two highland species of a cool-climate lizard genus: Niveoscincus. We found evidence of divergence in basking behaviour between populations and species, with highland species and high-altitude populations of all species basking more than the widespread lowland species and low-altitude populations. Furthermore, we found differences in the extent of behavioural plasticity between species. Widespread lowland species altered their basking behaviour depending on basking opportunity whereas the highland species maintained high levels of basking independent of basking opportunity. These differences in basking behaviour were concordant with the differences in body temperature across all populations, species and treatments. Combined, this suggests that divergence in thermoregulatory behaviour and thermophysiology between populations and species may have been facilitated by adaptive behavioural plasticity within populations. We discuss this and the implications of our findings for the ability of these animals to cope with ongoing climate change.表型可塑性（phenotypic plasticity）在决定生物如何在短时间尺度内响应环境变化的过程中发挥核心作用。尽管如此，我们对不同种群或物种间表型可塑性的差异仍知之甚少。我们针对凉性蜥蜴属——雪石龙子属（Niveoscincus）的2种广布低地物种与2种高地物种的低海拔和高海拔种群，检测了其晒背行为（basking behaviour）的可塑性程度。我们发现种群与物种间的晒背行为存在分化：所有物种的高地类群以及高海拔种群的晒背频次均高于广布低地物种与低海拔种群。此外，我们还发现不同物种间行为可塑性的程度存在差异。广布低地物种的晒背行为会随晒背机会的变化而调整，而高地物种则始终保持较高的晒背频次，不受晒背机会的影响。晒背行为的这些差异，与所有种群、物种及实验处理下的体温差异相一致。综合来看，这表明种群与物种间的体温调节行为和热生理分化，可能得益于种群内部的适应性行为可塑性。我们就此展开了讨论，并探讨了本研究结果对这些动物应对当前气候变化的能力所具有的启示意义。