2024-03-29T07:22:20Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/2432392022-02-16T02:49:25Zcom_10261_77com_10261_8col_10261_330
Chemical cues may allow a fossorial amphisbaenian reptile to avoid extremely saline soils when selecting microhabitats
Martín Rueda, José
Ibáñez, Alejandro
Garrido, Mario
Raya-García, Ernesto
López Martínez, Pilar
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
European Commission
Chemosensory recognition
Amphisbaenians
Habitat selection
Habitat cues
Soil salinity
When selecting optimal habitats, animals should rely on detecting environmental cues that indicate the suitability of a given site. In fossorial animals, restrictions of the underground environment might limit the opportunities for habitat selection. However, field observations of some fossorial amphisbaenian reptiles indicate that microhabitat occupancy is not random. This might simply result from the low survival of individuals in suboptimal habitats, but it may reflect active behavioral selection. We suggest that, in the fossorial environment, chemical cues may be very important for actively selecting or avoiding specific microhabitats. Here, we tested the ability of Trogonophis wiegmanni amphisbaenians to discriminate and select different types of substrates by using chemical cues alone. In laboratory preference tests, amphisbaenians selected soils with low salinity levels (natural or experimentally manipulated), mimicking the microhabitat selection patterns observed in the wild. Moreover, chemosensory tests measuring tongue-flick rates showed that amphisbaenians discriminated using chemical cues alone between soil types according to natural salinity levels, and also between manipulated chemical stimuli with different salinity levels. These results suggest that the microgeographic patterns of distribution of these amphisbaenians are due to their ability to use substrate chemical cues to actively avoid extremely saline soils. and select optimal microhabitats.
2021-06-11T10:03:11Z
2021-06-11T10:03:11Z
2021-05
artículo
Journal of Arid Environments 188: 104452 (2021)
0140-1963
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/243239
10.1016/j.jaridenv.2021.104452
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000780
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004837
eng
Postprint
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/icad.12498
Sí
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PGC2018-093592-B-100
openAccess
Elsevier