Sequential Temperature Acclimation and Metabolic Rate: Order- Dependent Effects in Lizards

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

4-2025

Abstract

Environmental temperature fluctuations strongly influence the physiology of many ectothermic species, including the brown anole (Anolis sagrei). Scientists often measure the metabolic rate of these animals at different temperatures as part of a suite of variables used to determine how they may react to environmental change or how they partition their thermal environment with other species. Current methodologies for measuring oxygen usage over time as a proxy for metabolic rate are not standardized across the discipline, but it does involve either ramping up or ramping down the temperature and measuring oxygen consumption rate at different temperatures. We hypothesize that each previous experimental temperature experienced affects the subsequent measurements and, therefore, biases the measurement depending on sequence. In this study, we measure oxygen consumption across the same set of conditions using three different sequences of acclimation temperatures prevalent in the literature and one novel methodology. Our findings will help scientists interpret their future results and make better comparisons between and within species. Understanding how measurements of this species’s metabolism is affected by the design of the experiment will have much broader implications on physiological research on all ectotherms. . Keywords: Brown Anoles, Anolis sagrei, thermoregulation, metabolic response, oxygen consumption, evolutionary ecology

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3:30-5:00 p.m.

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