Grow fast but don’t die young: maternal effects mediate life-history tradeoffs of lizards under climate warming

1. As postulated by life-history theory, not all life-history traits can
be maximized simultaneously. In ectothermic animals, climate warming is
predicted to increase growth rates, but at a cost to overall lifespan.
Maternal effects are expected to mediate this life-history tradeoff, but
such effects have not yet been explicitly elucidated. 2. To understand
maternal effects on the life-history responses to climate warming in
lizard offspring, we conducted a manipulative field experiment on a
desert-dwelling viviparous lacertid lizard (Eremias multiocellata), using
open-top chambers in a factorial design (maternal warm climate and
maternal present climate treatments × offspring warm climate and offspring
present climate treatments). 3. We found that the maternal warm climate
treatment had little impact on the physiological and life-history traits
of adult females (i.e., metabolic rate, reproductive output, growth, and
survival). However, the offspring warm climate treatment significantly
affected offspring growth, and both maternal and offspring warm climate
treatments interacted to affect offspring survival. 4. Offspring from the
warm climate treatment grew faster than those from the present climate
treatment. However, the offspring warm climate treatment significantly
decreased the survival rate of offspring from maternal present climate
treatment, but not for those from the maternal warm climate treatment. 5.
Our study demonstrates that maternal effects mediate the tradeoff between
growth and survival of offspring lizards, allowing them to grow fast
without a concurrent cost of low survival rate (short lifespan). These
findings stress the importance of adaptive maternal effects in buffering
the impact of climate warming on organisms, which may help us to
accurately predict the vulnerability of populations and species to future
warming climates.