Fertility loss under thermal stress

Climate change models predict that the frequency and intensity of heatwaves are likely to increase, therefore understanding population responses to these extreme climatic events will be key in mitigating biodiversity loss. Here, using the male dimorphic bulb mite, Rhizoglyphus robini, we investigate and compare the impact of experimental heat stress on survival and fertility between females and male morphs that differ in the expression of a sexually selected weapon. We show that lethal limits are similar among all individuals, but find clear sex differences, although no difference between morphs, in sub-lethal temperatures causing sterility: female fertility remains high close to lethal limits, whereas both male morphs suffer fertility loss at more than 2.5°C below their lethal limits. Contrastingly, when thermal stress was lower, the sexes and morphs do not differ in their thermal sensitivity and declines in reproductive output are comparable, these declines appear to be additive as we..., Individual mites were isolated from a large outbred stock population. These individuals were then exposed to varying levels of thermal stress (or control temperatures). These focal individuals were then paired with individuals of the opposite sex that has not been exposed to heat stress for 2 days and allowed to mate and produce offspring. We also included an addiontal treatment that allowed heat stressed individuals an addiontal 2 days to recover from heat stress prior to pairing. We scored fertility loss in two ways: 1) thermal fertility limits was estimated by scoring focals as fertile or not by the presence/absence or any number of larvae produced and 2) thermal sensetivity of fertility was estimated by counting the number of offspring produced by pairs. Addiionally we calculated thermal limits by scoring individuals as dead or alive after heat stress.
Thermal limits and thermal fertility limits were analysed using dose response models and thermal sensetivity of fertility was analys..., , ### Death\_data.csv

Data describes the counts of individuals alive and dead after being exposed to varying levels of two day heat stress

column description:

* Focal - categorical factor describing sex and morph of the individual, either: Female, Fighter (male) or Scrambler (male)
* Block - factor describing the block that the experiment was performed, either: 1 or 2
* Temp - the temperature (C) focal individuals were exposed to, either: 23 degrees (control) or 29-36 degrees
* Alive - count of individuals that were alive after heat stress
* Dead - count of individuals that were dead after heat stress
* Error - count of individuals that were discarded due to various errors, such as: experimenter handling error or vials being considered to have low humidity

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### TFL\_data.csv

Data describing the counts of individuals scored as fertile or not after being exposed to varying levels of two day heat stress

*Note*
Females were paired with both male morphs and data is separ...