Distribution patterns of lizards in the Caatinga: relations between climate change and fossoriality

• Grant number: 24/23574-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: March 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology
• Principal Investigator: Tiana Kohlsdorf
• Grantee: Pedro Henrique Nunes Zani
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/14780-1 - Evo-Devo in dynamic environments: implications of climatic changes in the biodiversity, AP.TEM

Abstract

Lizards are particularly vulnerable to climatic fluctuations, because their thermoregulation and physiologies are often modulated by environmental gradients. Consequently, their distribution patterns are strongly correlated with climatic parameters such as precipitation and temperature. The herpetofauna of the Caatinga is susceptible to severe periods of drought and high temperatures throughout the year. In this context, increases in average temperatures and aridity in this region will likely affect its biodiversity in the next decades. Gymnophthalmidae is a lizard family comprising more than 20 species endemic to the Caatinga, representing considerable phylogenetic, morphological and ecological variation. Gymnophthalmid lizards in the Caatinga include subterranean representatives (i.e., fossorial), and their degree of ecological specialization is associated with remarkable differences in body shape, ranging from lacetiform to snakelike (i.e., elongated and limbless) phenotypes. This undergraduate research project aims to integrate habitat use characteristics in the assessment of potential effects of climate change on the distribution patterns of gymnophthalmid lizards in the Caatinga. Habitat suitability modeling will be implemented to assess whether species characterized by different degrees of fossoriality differ in terms of 1) their suitability patterns related to environmental variables, and 2) future projections of geographic distribution in the face of climate change. The project stands out for integrating biogeography, evolution and ecology, contributing to the elucidation of distribution patterns and the impacts of climate change in a biome as biodiverse as it is threatened. (AU)