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Hello everybody !

I would like to know if you have some documents about the influence of the weather on amphibians and reptiles reproduction.
Someone asked me if the actual weather in France (very bad since the middle of march) can simply trigger a response of the non-reproduction.

I know tortoises can make sperm retention, but what about snakes and lizards?

Hi Alex,

I have in mind a paper about asp vipers, but it's more about the effects of T°C on the embryonic development (is that what you are looking for?).

http://www.cebc.cnrs.fr/publipdf/2004/LOik104.pdf

That's not really what I'm looking for but it's something that could be very interesting to understand the effects of the weather on Reptiles metabolism. Thanks !

Hi again,

I just went through another paper released in 2013 by Bonnet and al. studying the effect of the ambient temperature on the gestation of asp vipers ("Impact of cool versus warm temperatures on gestation in the aspic viper (Vipera aspis)"). The main conclusion is :

"Overall, our data suggest that pregnant females placed under cool temperatures (23°C) were not able to simultaneously sustain reproductive effort and to maintain high immunity level. Physiological costs of immune function can be elevated and can negatively affect reproduction (Lochmiller and Deerenberg, 2000, Adamo et al., 2001 and Martin et al., 2008). Experimental manipulation of reproductive effort in an oviparous lizard revealed physiological trade-offs between reproduction and immunity; notably under strong energetic constraints such as low food availability [...] Overall, our results clearly suggest that successful reproduction requires higher temperatures compared to digestion for instance".