Attenuated phenotypic responses of lizard morphology to logging and fire-related forest disturbance
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Attenuated phenotypic responses of lizard morphology to logging and fire-related forest disturbance Francesca Lyndon‑Gee1,2 · Tim S. Jessop3 Received: 3 March 2020 / Accepted: 12 August 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Animals that face natural and human-mediated landscape disturbance processes can demonstrate different modalities of phenotypic variation to influence local population persistence. Differences in the frequency and pervasiveness of environmental variation can cause an individual’s phenotype to demonstrate either directional plasticity (i.e., environmental matching), canalization, or increased trait variance. Furthermore, how important a trait’s influence is on fitness can further mediate the nature of phenotypic outcomes to environmental variation. We explored the effects of multi-decadal chronosequences of logging and fire-related forest disturbance on morphological variation of the generalist lizard species, the Yellow-bellied water skink (Eulamprus heatwolei) in Southern Australia. There was evidence that both logging and fire-related disturbance could influence multiple elements of vegetation structure that would construe a major source of environmental variation for lizards. Nevertheless, neither logging nor fire-related disturbance effects resulted in significant differences in lizard morphological traits. However, there was evidence that years post-fire disturbance was associated with a modest but significant increase in a measure of lizard morphological variance. For the most part, we suggest that lizards exhibit canalization in their morphological responses to disturbance related environmental variation. In forests ecosystems with complex temporal and spatial regimes of environmental variation, canalization of lizard morphology could be expected to ensure phenotypic stability within or across generations to favor geometric, over arithmetic, fitness. Keywords Environmental disturbance · Unpredictible environmental variation · Phenotypic consequences · Canalization · Body plan · Reptile
* Tim S. Jessop [email protected] 1
School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia
2
Melbourne Zoo, Zoos Victoria, Elliott Ave, Parkville 3052, Australia
3
Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds 3235, Australia
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Evolutionary Ecology
Introduction Environmental disturbances have profound effects on the ecology and evolution of organisms (Hoffmann and Hercus 2000; Badyaev 2005a, 2005b). These consequences arise because disturbances can drastically alter physical and biotic processes that present individuals with complex and transient environmental variations that can persist long after the initial disturbance. In particular, many landscapes, and hence their constituent species, now face regimes of multiple natural and human-mediated disturbance processes that impose complex regimes of pervasive and stochastic environmental change and associated selection on
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