Data and code from: Seasonal timing of ecosystem linkage mediates life-history variation in a salmonid fish population

Life-history variation can contribute to long-term persistence of
populations; however, it remains unclear which environmental factors drive
life-history variation within a population. Seasonally recurring resource
subsidies are common in nature and may influence variations in recipient
consumers’ life-history traits. In this study, we experimentally
demonstrated that terrestrial invertebrate subsidies occurring early in
the growing season facilitated consumer individuals to adopt fast growth.
In contrast, fewer consumer individuals adopted fast growth when subsidies
occurred late in the growing season. Consumer individuals that adopted
fast growth matured early at age-1, suggesting that the observed variation
in life-history emerged along with a fast–slow life-history continuum. The
estimated survival probability was lower in consumer individuals from the
faster-growth cluster in the no-supply treatment, suggesting a
growth–survival trade-off. However, the growth–survival trade-off became
unclear in the early-supply treatment and even reversed in the late-supply
treatment. As a result, the frequency of consumer individuals maturing at
age-1 was higher in the early-supply treatment than in the late-supply
treatment and no-supply treatment, implying a higher short-term population
growth with the early subsidies. Our findings highlight that seasonal
ecosystem linkages through resource subsidies help us understand how
life-history variation can be maintained within a population at the
landscape scale.