Agonistic behavioural asymmetry in two species of montane lizard that exhibit elevational replacement

• Published in: Landscape ecology 2021-03, Vol.36 (3), p.863-876
• Main Authors: Senior, Anna F., Chapple, David G., Atkins, Zak S., Clemann, Nick, Gardner, Michael G., While, Geoffrey M., Wong, Bob B. M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aggressive behavior; Asymmetry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biting; Climate change; Distribution patterns; Ecology; Environmental Management; Geographical distribution; Global warming; Interspecific; Landscape Ecology; Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning; Life Sciences; Lizards; Nature Conservation; Physiology; Reptiles; Research Article; Sea level; Sibling species; Sustainable Development; Three dimensional models; Three dimensional printing; Tolerances
• ISSN: 0921-2973; 1572-9761
• DOI: 10.1007/s10980-020-01184-5

Context In montane systems, closely related species tend to segregate spatially along elevational gradients. The role of biotic interactions, relative to species physiological requirements, in maintaining these distribution patterns is an important question in spatial ecology. Theory suggests that the role of interspecific competition can be significant in the maintenance of elevation replacement distributions. Despite this, there has been limited work investigating factors beyond thermophysiology in determining ranges in temperate montane species. Objectives and methods We investigated agonistic (i.e. aggressive) behaviour in response to a simulated intruder (conspecific versus heterospecific 3D printed models) in two sister species of temperate montane lizard, Liopholis guthega and L. montana , from south-eastern Australia. The two species have similar thermal tolerances at an area of distributional overlap between 1600 and 1700 m above sea level, above which L. montana is replaced by the high elevation specialist L. guthega . Results We found that response to intruder stimuli differed between the two species, with the high elevation L. guthega actively biting both conspecific and heterospecific models, whereas the lower elevation L. montana , never attacked either model type. Our findings provide evidence of asymmetric agonistic response in the two montane reptile species. Conclusions These findings have important implications for understanding how biological interactions and behaviour, in addition to thermo-physiological data, might mediate landscape scale distribution patterns both now and as environments change in the future. More broadly, our results are not consistent with the widespread idea that low elevation species will inevitably ‘push’ higher elevation species out, as global warming erodes species’ thermal envelopes.