Sydney M. Wayne

Eggs of reptiles that inhabit hurricane-prone regions are often subjected to environmental stressors caused bythese storms. Some studies have examined how stress resulting from submersion in water or exposure to salinity affectsembryonic development and hatching success, but none have evaluated the effects of physical disturbances associatedwith strong winds. To demonstrate plausible effects of physical stressors associated with hurricane-force winds, we simulatedtwo situations that are likely experienced by eggs of Brown Anoles (Anolis sagrei), which inhabit areas affected byfrequent hurricanes. First, we simulated conditions during which eggs are blown or dropped from a standard 3-m height(e.g., like those in arboreal nests); second, we shook eggs to simulate physical disturbances associated with being vigorouslyblown by strong winds. We then compared hatching success, body size, and running performance of offspringfrom these treatments to control eggs/hatchings that were not disturbed during incubation. We demonstrated that eggsthat were dropped had reduced hatching success compared to both the shaken and control groups, but those shaken didnot differ from the control group. Additionally, we found no differences in hatchling body size or performance amongtreatments. Overall, our study demonstrated some resilience of Brown Anole eggs to major disturbances, which mightcontribute to the success of this species in highly disturbed habitats throughout its native and invasive ranges.

Water availability has critical impacts on numerous physiological functions in all organisms and can have different effects across life stages. For example, water available to reproductive females can influence offspring production, and has the potential to influence how early‐stage offspring (e.g., embryos) respond to moisture in their developmental environment. In this study, we use the brown anole lizard (Anolis sagrei) to examine the effects of water availability on reproductive investment. We tested the hypothesis that water available to mothers influences embryonic development under different levels of moisture in their incubation environment. We demonstrate that a substantial reduction in water availability to mothers (~70% reduction) has no observable effect on fecundity, egg size, or egg hydration. We also provide evidence that our water restriction to mothers does not influence how embryos respond to moisture conditions during egg incubation. However, moisture in the egg incubation substrate positively affected egg water uptake, egg hatching success and hatchling body size (but not hatchling hydration). Overall, our study shows that reproduction in adult female A. sagrei is robust to variation in water availability, but survival during early life stages is sensitive to this variable. Thus, the effect of water availability on different fitness components varies between life stages.