Un estudio liderado por la Estación Biológica de Doñana del CSIC, ubicada en Sevilla, ha demostrado por primera vez que los cambios que realizan los organismos para ajustar su comportamiento, morfología y estrategia de vida a los cambios ambientales conllevan costes fisiológicos relacionados con el estrés oxidativo. Leer más.

La contaminación del suelo por metales pesados contribuye a aumentar el estrés fisiológico de la culebrilla mora (Trogonophis wiegmanni), una especie de reptil adaptada a la vida subterránea, según un estudio científico. Leer más.

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.