Maternal nesting behaviour in city dragons: a species with temperature-dependent sex determination

Urban environments present some of the greatest challenges to species survival. This is particularly true for species that exhibit thermally sensitive traits, such as temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD). This is because urban environments not only present species with entirely novel ecosystems, but species will also experience increased temperatures. These temperature increases may result not only in offspring mortality, but also skewed population sex ratios. To persist in cities, urban dwellers with TSD will therefore need to adjust the temperature of the nesting environment, either through phenotypic plasticity or rapid evolution through natural selection. Here, we investigate the nesting ecology of a long-lived, urban dwelling reptile, the eastern water dragon (Intellagama lesueurii), to understand how a TSD species may respond to urban environments. Based on data collected from 72 nests over 2 nesting seasons, we show that city dragons not only dug significantly deeper nes...

城市环境对物种存续构成了诸多严峻挑战。对于表现出热敏感性状的物种而言尤为如此，例如温度依赖型性别决定（temperature-dependent sex determination, TSD）。究其原因，城市环境不仅为物种塑造了全新的生态系统，同时还使其暴露于更高的气温条件之下。此类气温升高不仅可能引发后代死亡，还会导致种群性别比例失衡。因此，具备温度依赖型性别决定机制的城市栖息物种若要在城市中存续，便需通过表型可塑性或自然选择驱动的快速演化，来调整巢穴环境的温度。本研究针对一种长寿的城市栖息爬行动物——东部水龙（Intellagama lesueurii）的巢穴生态学展开调查，以期揭示具有温度依赖型性别决定的物种如何响应城市环境。本研究基于两个繁殖季内72个巢穴的采集数据，结果显示城市中的东部水龙不仅挖掘的巢穴深度显著更深……