## 4 Discussion
### Why Should Multi-Site Studies Be Favored?
#### 4.1.1 To Assess the Spatial Variability Due to Micro-Habitat  
Contrary to what was expected, all comparisons between the two replicates placed only one meter apart showed significant HaDaily differences representing up to almost twice the reference daily activity time, HaDaily\({}_{\text{ref}}\). In addition, persistence indices widely varied, sometimes indicating a non-zero extinction probability and sometimes a persistence margin (at Angls, PI varied from 0.902 to 1.510, Table 1). These results probably highlight the existence of the micro-climate felt by lizards at soil and scree level. The rocks composition and their density modulate the thermal conductivity and thus the micro-habitat temperature [108]. For instance, the Pyrenean rock lizard lives on screes composed of sandstone, shale, and volcanic rocks [94; 109]. These rocks have different properties, \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline  & _p-Value_ & **Pseudo-Median [IC\({}_{95\%}\)]** & **PI in 2017, 2018, 2019, Mean \(\pm\) SD** \\ \hline
2017 vs. 2018 for NH & 0.690 & \(-\)0.25 [\(-\)0.58; 125] & 1.130, 1.050, 1.304, 1.161 \(\pm\) 0.130 \\ \hline
2017 vs. 2019 for NH & 0.125 & \(-\)0.92 [\(-\)2.08; 0.17] & \\ \hline
2018 vs. 2019 for NH & \(7.37\times 10^{-2.8}\) & \(-\)1.08 [\(-\)2.33; \(-\)0.08] * & \\ \hline
2017 vs. 2018 for NL & \(\mathbf{1.02\times 10^{-2}}\) & \(-\)1.33 [\(-\)2.25; \(-\)0.42] & 0.750, 1.047, 1.021, 0.939 \(\pm\) 0.164 \\ \hline
2017 vs. 2019 for NL & \(\mathbf{1.17\times 10^{-2}}\) & \(-\)**1.08 [\(-\)1.83; \(-\)0.33]** & \\ \hline
2018 vs. 2019 for NL & \(0.690\) & \(0.17\) [\(-\)0.50; 0.83] & \\ \hline
2017 vs. 2018 for SH & \(\mathbf{1.94\times 10^{-2}}\) & \(-\)**1.17 [\(-\)2.08; \(-\)0.42]** & 0.875, 1.154, 1.032, 1.020 \(\pm\) 0.140 \\ \hline
2017 vs. 2019 for SH & 0.177 & \(-\)0.75 [\(-\)1.85; 0.17] & \\ \hline
2018 vs. 2019 for SH & 0.187 & \(0.50\) [\(-\)0.25; 1.25] & \\ \hline
2017 vs. 2018 for SL & 0.125 & \(0.83\) [\(-\)0.17; 1.67] & 1.148, 0.999, 0.968, 1.038 \(\pm\) 0.096 \\ \hline
2017 vs. 2019 for SL & 0.125 * & \(1.08\) [\(-\)0.17; 2.17] * & \\ \hline
2018 vs. 2019 for SL & 0.857 & \(0.08\) [\(-\)0.83; 1.08] & \\ \hline
2017 vs. 2018 for An\({}_{1}\) & 0.106 & \(-\)0.75 [\(-\)1.83; 0.08] & 0.933, 1.136, 0.902, 0.990 \(\pm\) 0.127 \\ \hline
2017 vs. 2019 for An\({}_{1}\) & 0.690 & \(0.25\) [\(-\)0.67; 1.08] & \\ \hline
2018 vs. 2019 for An\({}_{1}\) & \(5.53\times 10^{-2}\) * & \(1.25\) [0.17; 2.17] * & \\ \hline
2017 vs. 2018 for An\({}_{2}\) & \(0.476\) & \(-\)0.50 [\(-\)1.83; 0.83] & 1.406, 1.510, 1.073, 1.330 \(\pm\) 0.228 \\ \hline
2017 vs. 2019 for An\({}_{2}\) & \(\mathbf{2.78\times 10^{-2}}\) & \(\mathbf{1.83\) [0.42; 2.92]} & \\ \hline
2018 vs. 2019 for An\({}_{2}\) & \(\mathbf{2.78\times 10^{-2}}\) & \(\mathbf{2.25\) [0.50; 3.67]} & \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Wilcoxon Signed Rank bilateral tests for paired samples on the inter-year level. _p_-values have been corrected by the FDR method and are shown in Figure 3. The pseudo-medians of the daily activity hours differences and their 95% confidence interval as well as the associated persistence indices (PI), annual mean, and standard deviation are also presented. Significant differences detected are in bold, an asterisk indicates those that are also seem biologically relevant. such as their mineralogy, granulometry, and water content, which influence thermal conductivity [110]. For example, thermal conductivity increases with the density of dry sandstone and siltstone rocks [110]. For granites composed of quartz and feldsparth, minerals also present in sandstones, the authors of [111] demonstrated that thermal conductivity is higher when they contain water and have low porosity. Thus, all rocks in the Pyrenean rock lizard habitat have different thermal conductivities which may explain the differences observed in the calculations of activity times and persistence indices.