title: Climate and habitat interact to shape the thermal reaction norms of breeding phenology across lizard populations.
abstract: Substantial plastic variation in phenology in response to environmental heterogeneity through time in the same population has been uncovered in many species. However, our understanding of differences in reaction norms of phenology among populations from a given species remains limited. As the plasticity of phenological traits is often influenced by local thermal conditions, we expect local temperature to generate variation in the reaction norms between populations. Here, we explored temporal variation in parturition date across 11 populations of the common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) from four mountain chains as a function of air temperatures during mid-gestation. We characterized among-population variation to assess how local weather conditions (mean and variance of ambient temperatures during mid-gestation) and habitat openness (an index of anthropogenic disturbance) influence the thermal reaction norms of the parturition date. Our results provide evidence of interactive effects of anthropogenic disturbance and thermal conditions, with earlier parturition dates in warmer years on average especially in closed habitats. Variation in the reaction norms for parturition date was correlated with mean local thermal conditions at a broad geographical scale. However, populations exposed to variable thermal conditions had flatter thermal reaction norms. Assessing whether environmental heterogeneity drives differentiation among reaction norms is crucial to estimate the capacity of different populations to contend with projected climatic and anthropogenic challenges.
authors.affiliation: CNRS, USR2936, Station d'Ecologie Expérimentale du CNRS à Moulis, 09200, Moulis, France.
authors.forename: Alexis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rutschmann
authors.affiliation: CNRS, USR2936, Station d'Ecologie Expérimentale du CNRS à Moulis, 09200, Moulis, France.|Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, 131 Life Sciences Building, Athens, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Donald B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Miles
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire iEES Paris, CNRS/ENS/UPMC, UMR 7618, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 7 Quai St. Bernard, 75005, Paris, France.|CNRS/ENS, UMS3194, CEREEP - Ecotron Ile-de-France, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 78 rue du Château, 77140, St-Pierre-lès-Nemours, France.
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Le Galliard
authors.affiliation: CNRS, USR2936, Station d'Ecologie Expérimentale du CNRS à Moulis, 09200, Moulis, France.
authors.forename: Murielle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.affiliation: CNRS, USR2936, Station d'Ecologie Expérimentale du CNRS à Moulis, 09200, Moulis, France.|TerrOïko, 2 rue Clémence Isaure, FR-31250, Revel, France.
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moulherat
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Earth and Marine Sciences, University of California, Building A316, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA.
authors.forename: Barry
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sinervo
authors.affiliation: CNRS, USR2936, Station d'Ecologie Expérimentale du CNRS à Moulis, 09200, Moulis, France.
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Clobert
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002980:Climate; D017753:Ecosystem; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D008116:Lizards / Q000502:physiology*; D012098:Reproduction; D012621:Seasons; D013696:Temperature
keywords: among-population variation; anthropogenic disturbance; common lizard; parturition date; phenology; plasticity; reaction norm; thermal sensitivity