Date of Award
Summer 8-2017
Degree Type
Dissertation-Restricted
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Program
Biological Sciences
Department
Biological Sciences
Major Professor
Simon Lailvaux
Second Advisor
Michele Johnson
Third Advisor
Philip DeVries
Fourth Advisor
Jerome Howard
Fifth Advisor
Caz Taylor
Abstract
Invasive species can have a variety of effects on the behavior and ecology of native species. Currently in New Orleans, Louisiana, both A. sagrei and A. carolinensis lizards are relatively abundant, but the A. sagrei population is expanding rapidly. I used a combination of laboratory and field studies to investigate factors that might be influencing local dominance of invasive A. sagrei over native A. carolinensis populations, including habitat use, display behavior, interspecific aggressive interactions, and plasticity. When comparing display behavior and habitat use in anole populations across three field sites in southern Louisiana, I found differences in male display behavior of both species, and also that A. carolinensis perched higher when A. sagrei was present. In staged interspecific interactions, I discovered that A. sagrei females achieved consistently higher aggressive scores than A. carolinensis females, suggesting that female interspecific behavior is probably more important than male behavior in driving changes in habitat use. Lastly, I studied plasticity in several morphological and whole-organism performance variables by rearing males and females of each species on two different perch diameters. I found that sprinting performance in A. sagrei was significantly different between treatment groups, although the morphological differences between perch treatments were subtler than those reported in previous studies. I also found that A. carolinensis females exhibited significant differences in both sprinting and clinging performance, despite no significant differences in male or female morphology between perch size treatments, highlighting the potential for both species-specific and sex-specific plasticity.
Recommended Citation
Edwards, Jessica R., "Mechanisms of Invasion and Competition in Anolis sagrei and Anolis carolinensis lizards in southeastern Louisiana" (2017). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 2376.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2376
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.