Data from: The effect of resource limitation on the temperature-dependence of mosquito population fitness

Laboratory-derived temperature dependencies of life history traits are
increasingly being used to make mechanistic predictions for how climatic
warming will affect vector-borne disease dynamics, partially by affecting
abundance dynamics of the vector population. These temperature-trait
relationships are typically estimated from juvenile populations reared on
optimal resource supply, even though natural populations of vectors are
expected to experience variation in resource supply, including
intermittent resource limitation. Using laboratory experiments on the
mosquito Aedes aegypti, a principal arbovirus vector, combined with
stage-structured population modelling, we show that low-resource supply in
the juvenile life stages significantly depresses the vector’s maximal
population growth rate across the entire temperature range (22–32°C) and
causes it to peak at a lower temperature than at high-resource supply.
This effect is primarily driven by an increase in juvenile mortality and
development time, combined with a decrease in adult size with temperature
at low-resource supply. Our study suggests that most projections of
temperature-dependent vector abundance and disease transmission are likely
to be biased because they are based on traits measured under optimal
resource supply. Our results provide compelling evidence for future
studies to consider resource supply when predicting the effects of climate
and habitat change on vector-borne disease transmission, disease vectors
and other arthropods.