The study species, Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail, is a thermo-regulator that shuttles between open and shaded
microhabitats while actively foraging.
The most recent ecological study involving Platymantis and the importance of their
microhabitats as "thermal buffers" included the series of papers by Scheffers, Brunner, Ramirez, Shoo, Diesmos, and Williams (2013a) and Scheffers, Phillips, Laurance, Sodhi, Diesmos, and Williams (2014) on Mt.
We conducted an independent sample one-way ANOVA test to compare variable differences among three species
microhabitats and control plots when data were normally distributed and the Kruskal-Wallis H test was used when the distribution assumptions were not met (Du 1984, Lu et al.
Eterovick PC, Figueira JEC, Vasconcellos-Neto J (1997) Cryptic coloration and choice of escape
microhabitats by grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acrididae).
We then collected other three lizard species, Plestiodon chinensis, Sphenomorphus indicus, and Scincella modesta, from geographical locations near each other, but with different
microhabitats. We observed considerable variation in Hsp70 expression; the constitutive Hsp70 expression varied between organs and between species under heat shock.
1-3), the use of
microhabitats and substrate types by the arboreal species (Fig.
Although the magnitude of desiccation stress generally increases landward, it can vary substantially between adjacent
microhabitats, and organisms frequently take advantage of concentrated bits of moisture to survive, such as under algal canopies (Brawley and Johnson, 1991) or oyster shells (Grant and McDonald, 1979) or within crevices (Kensler, 1967).
Tidal creek estuaries have narrow channelized aquatic
microhabitats with relatively large intertidal mudflats interwoven with vegetated marsh plains.
Experts created
microhabitats which maintained the ideal temperature, UV levels, rainfall and humidity in order to encourage breeding.
To maintain statistical independence from the consequence of examining the same turtle hibernacula across two years, we used Mann-Whitney U-tests to examine the difference between 1)
microhabitats and 2) soil variables between hibernation and random plots within 2014 and 2015 separately.