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Updated: Apr 28, 2026

Field-Based Thermal Physiology Assay: Cold Shock Recovery under Ambient Conditions
Published on: March 9, 2021
Does thermal ecology influence dynamics of side-blotched lizards and their micro-parasites?
Dhanashree A Paranjpe1, Dianna Medina2, Erica Nielsen2
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA dhana4shree@gmail.com.
Abstract:
Hosts and parasites form interacting populations that influence each other in multiple ways. Their dynamics can also be influenced by environmental and ecological factors. We studied host-parasite dynamics in a previously unexplored study system: side-blotched lizards and their micro-parasites. Compared with uninfected lizards, the infected lizards elected to bask at lower temperatures that were outside their range of preferred temperatures. Infected lizards also were not as precise as uninfected lizards in maintaining their body temperatures within a narrow range. At the ecological scale, areas with higher infection rates coincided with more thermally heterogeneous microhabitats as well as with the areas where lizards tended to live longer. Thermal heterogeneity of lizards' microhabitats may provide important clues to the spatial and temporal distribution of infections.
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