Tick exposure and extreme climate events impact survival and threaten the persistence of a long-lived lizard

1. Assessing the impacts of multiple, often synergistic, stressors on the population dynamics of long-lived species is becoming increasingly important due to recent and future global change. 2. Tiliqua rugosa (sleepy lizard) is a long-lived skink (>30 years) that is adapted to survive in semi-arid environments with varying levels of parasite exposure and highly seasonal food availability. We used an exhaustive database of 30-years of capture-mark-recapture records to quantify the impacts of both parasite exposure and environmental conditions on the lizard's survival rates and long-term population dynamics. 3. Lizard abundance was relatively stable throughout the study period; however there were changing patterns in adult and juvenile apparent survival rates, driven by spatial and temporal variation in levels of tick exposure and temporal variation in environmental conditions. Extreme weather events during the winter and spring seasons were identified as important environmental driver...

1. 鉴于近期及未来的全球变化，探究多重（通常具有协同效应）胁迫因子对长寿物种种群动态的影响，其重要性与日俱增。2. 澳洲睡蜥（Tiliqua rugosa）是一种寿命可达30年以上的长寿石龙子，其演化适应了存在不同程度寄生虫暴露、食物可获得性高度季节性变化的半干旱环境。本研究依托一套涵盖30年的完整标记-重捕记录数据库，量化了寄生虫暴露与环境条件对该蜥蜴存活率及长期种群动态的影响。3. 整个研究周期内，该蜥蜴的种群丰度相对稳定，但成体与幼体的表观存活率呈现出动态变化模式——这种变化由蜱虫暴露水平的时空变异，以及环境条件的时间变异共同驱动。研究识别出冬、春季的极端天气事件为关键的环境驱动因子……