Warming climates are facilitating the range expansion of many taxa to habitats that were formerly thermally inhospitable, including to higher latitudes and elevations. The potential for such colonization, however, varies widely among taxa. Because environmental factors may interact to affect colonization potential, an understanding of underlying physiological and behavioral mechanisms is necessary to predict how species will respond to potentially suitable habitats. For example, temperature and oxygen availability will interact to shape physiological and performance traits. Our model species, the wall lizard, Podarcis muralis, is a widely distributed ectotherm that continues to expand its range in Europe despite being limited by cold temperatures at high elevations and latitudes. To test the potential for organisms to expand to warming high-altitude environments, we conducted a transplant experiment to quantify the within-individual effects of high-altitude hypoxia on physiological and performance traits. Transplanted lizards maintained individual differences in physiological traits related to oxygen capacity and metabolism (hemoglobin concentration, hematocrit, and peak postexhaustion metabolic rate), as well as performance traits tied to fitness (sprint speed and running endurance). Although lizards altered blood biochemistry to increase oxygen-carrying capacity, their performance was reduced at high altitude. Furthermore, lizards at high altitude suffered a rapid loss of body condition over the 6-wk experiment, suggesting an energetic cost to hypoxia. Taken together, this demonstrates a limited potential for within-individual plasticity to facilitate colonization of novel high-altitude environments.

中文翻译：

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高峰期的蜥蜴：移植到高海拔地区的蜥蜴的生理可塑性不能维持其性能。

变暖的气候正在促使许多生物分类的范围扩大到以前热不适宜的生境，包括更高的纬度和海拔。但是，这种定殖的可能性在各分类群中差异很大。由于环境因素可能相互作用以影响定殖潜力，因此必须了解潜在的生理和行为机制，以预测物种如何对潜在的适宜生境做出反应。例如，温度和氧气的可用性将相互作用以塑造生理和性能特征。我们的模型物种，壁蜥，Podarcis muralis，是分布广泛的等温线，尽管在高海拔和高纬度地区受到寒冷的限制，但仍继续在欧洲扩大其范围。为了测试生物体向温暖的高海拔环境扩展的潜力，我们进行了一项移植实验，以量化高海拔缺氧对生理和性能特征的个体内部影响。移植的蜥蜴在与氧气容量和代谢（血红蛋白浓度，血细胞比容和力竭后代谢率峰值）有关的生理特征以及与体能相关的性能特征（冲刺速度和耐力）上保持个体差异。尽管蜥蜴改变了血液的生化特性以增加其携氧能力，但它们在高海拔地区的性能却下降了。此外，在6周的实验中，高海拔地区的蜥蜴遭受了身体状况的快速丧失，这表明缺氧会付出巨大的代价。在一起