A Current Knowledge Gap and Documented Patterns in Body Temperature, Food Consumption, Daily Activity, and Growth Rate in Lizards

Warming temperatures are known to influence ectotherm life history and physiology. As climate change increases global temperatures, the consequences of direct and indirect effects of warming are becoming of high interest in biology. Warming temperatures could alter daily activity, change rates of food consumption, and influence allocation of energy, altering life history. Lizards are a taxon of concern regarding climate change, with documented thermal sensitivity in physiological performance and life history. The current study used a series of meta-analyses to examine how body temperature, food consumption, duration of daily activity, and growth rate influence lizards. The results indicated that warming temperatures increased food consumption but decreased growth rate. Meanwhile, increasing food consumption increases lizard growth rate. However, mechanistic studies are needed to determine the factors dictating identified trends, as the current approach is correlational. Overall, few data were available for the parameters of interest, with zero studies quantifying the influence of daily activity on food consumption. Restrictions in daily activity are a primary consideration with climate change models for lizards; however, empirical data quantifying the effects are lacking. The current study identified fruitful areas for future research, specifically on the effects of daily activity on energetics to understand indirect and direct effects of climate change.