The fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) threatens amphibian biodiversity and ecosystem stability worldwide. Amphibian skin microbial community structure has been linked to the clinical outcome of Bd infections, yet its overall functional importance is poorly understood. Leer más.

Long-term maintenance of colour polymorphisms often depends on the interplay of multiple selective forces. In the common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis), up to three pure and two mosaic ventral colour morphs co-exist across most of its range. Available evidence suggests that colour morphs in this species are maintained through the interaction between sexual and environment-dependent selection. Leer más.

Due to the speed of climate changes, rapid buffering mechanisms such as phenotypic plasticity – which may depend on breeding phenology – could be key to avoid extinction. The links between phenology and plasticity, however, remain understudied. Here we explored the matching between phenology and the thermal sensitivity of standard (SMR) and routine metabolic rates (RMR), metabolic scope (i.e. the difference between RMR and SMR), survival and growth-development trajectories in larvae of a prolonged breeder amphibian Alytes almogavarii acclimated to 10 and 20°C, belonging to three cohorts: autumn pre-overwintering, autumn overwintering and spring tadpoles.  Leer más.

El 24 de febrer de 2022 ha eixit publicada en el Diari Oficial de la Generalitat Valenciana l’última modificació oficial del Catàleg Valencià d’Espècies de Fauna i Flora Amenaçades, on també es recullen les modificacions proposades per associacions mediambientals i conservacionistes, entre d’altres les formulades per nosaltres, l’Associació Herpetològica Timon. Així, pel que fa a l’herpetofauna i gràcies a la nostra proposta, la granota pintada ibèrica (Discoglossus galganoi) queda catalogada com a Espècie en Perill d’Extinció mentre el gripau d’esperons (Pelobates cultripes) passa a figurar com a Espècie Vulnerable, recuperant per tant la categoria de protecció de la que gaudia abans de l’anterior versió del catàleg. Leer más.

Climate change has strong effects on biodiversity. It causes shifts in the species’ geographical range, towards other latitudes or elevations, while tracking its natural habitat. Here, the species maintains its realised niche stable (in the environmental space) and shifts its geographical range. Alternatively, a species might shift its realised niche through its fundamental niche, maintaining its geographical range stable, when tracking its natural habitat is not possible.  Leer más.