Connectivity among thermal habitats buffers the effects of warm climate on life-history traits and population dynamics

1. Contemporary climate change affects population dynamics, but its influence varies with landscape structure. It is still unclear whether landscape fragmentation buffers or enhances the effects of climate on population size and on the age and body size of individuals composing these populations.
2. This study aims to investigate the impacts of warm climates on lizard life-history traits and population dynamics in habitats varying in their connectivity.
3. We monitored common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) populations for three years in an experimental system in which both climatic conditions and connectivity among habitats were simultaneously manipulated. We considered two climatic treatments (i.e., present-day climate and warm climate (+1.4°C than present-day climate)) and two connectivity treatments (i.e., a connected treatment in which individuals could move from one climate to the other and an isolated treatment in which movement between climates was not possible). We monitored survival...