Geographic patterns of stress in insular lizards reveal anthropogenic and climatic signatures

Abstract

Anthropization of insular ecosystems may have negative impacts on native populations of lizards, which provide core ecosystem services on islands. We aimed to identify environmental factors to explain the interlocal variation in faecal glucocorticoids, parasite intensity, and body condition in populations of insular lizards. A cross-sectional design during the summer of 2017 and 2018 was used to sample 611 adult lizards, Gallotia galloti. Interlocal variation of three stress indicators was analysed in response to environmental variables across a wide environmental gradient in Tenerife (Canary Islands): (i) concentration of faecal glucocorticoids, (ii) intensities of infection by hematic parasites, and (iii) body condition. The data, with low spatial autocorrelation, were analysed using multimodel inference and model cross-validation. Bioclimatic variables associated with the extreme hot and dry climate of summer were the most informative predictors. Interlocal variation in faecal corticosterone in males was best fitted to a model that included the maximum temperature of the warmest month, although the best predictor was habitat anthropization. The thermal annual range, associated with extreme thermal events, was positively related to faecal corticosterone in females. Extreme hot temperatures were positively related to the median parasite intensities in both sexes, while the highest mean intensities of infection were found in females from the most xeric coastal localities. None of the predictors tested, including faecal glucocorticoids, explained individual or interlocal variation in body condition. Effects of human pressure and climate change on insular populations of lizards can be additive. However, the uncoupled relationship found between body condition and the faecal glucocorticoid content suggests that current negative effects may be aggravated during drought periods in summer. Given the impact of climate change on islands, our results may be of application to other archipelagos, where lizards also play key ecological roles.

Keywords: Climate change; Corticosterone; Gallotia; Habitat degradation; Hematic parasite; Macaronesia.