Ups and downs of fossorial life: migration restlessness and geotaxis may explain overwintering emergence in the spotted salamander.

ABSTRACT: To decide whether to remain underground or to emerge from overwintering, fossorial ectotherms simultaneously process environmental, gravitational and circannual migratory cues. Here, we provide an experimental framework to study the behaviour of fossorial ectotherms during soil temperature inversion - a phenomenon that marks the transition between winter and spring - based on three non-mutually exclusive hypotheses (thermoregulation, negative geotaxis and migration restlessness). Using a vertical thermal gradient, we evaluated how temperature selection (Tsel), activity and vertical position selection differed under simulated soil temperature inversion (contrasting the active versus overwintering thermal gradients) in the spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum). Salamanders had different T

SUBMITTER: Giacometti D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11529874 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature