Spatial and temporal variation in phenotypes and fitness in response to developmental thermal environments

1) Phenotypic variation within populations is influenced by the environment via plasticity and natural selection. How phenotypes respond to the environment can vary among traits, populations, and life stages in ways that can influence fitness.

2) Plastic responses during early development are particularly important because they can affect components of fitness throughout an individual’s life. Consequently, how natural selection shapes developmental plasticity could be influenced by fitness consequences across different life stages. Moreover, spatial variation in selection pressures could generate differences in plastic responses among populations.

3) To gain insight into sources of variation in phenotypes and survival, we used a laboratory egg incubation experiment using brown anole lizards (Anolis sagrei) from mainland (ancestral) and island (descendent) populations, combined with a mark-release-recapture experiment in the field. Our study was designed to (i) quantify the effects...