Population growth in response to density and extrinsic heat waves in the copepod, Tigriopus californicus

Heat waves are transient environmental events but can have lasting impacts on populations through lethal and sub-lethal effects on demographic vital rates. Sub-lethal temperature stress affects individual energy balance, potentially affecting individual fitness and population growth. Environmental temperature can, however, have distinct effects on different life-history traits, and the net effect of short-term temperature stress on population growth may lead to different population responses over different time frames. Furthermore, sublethal temperature responses may be density dependent, leading to potentially complicated feedbacks between heat stress and demographic responses over time. Here, we test the hypotheses that: (i) populations subjected to higher heat wave temperatures and longer heat wave durations are more negatively affected than those subjected to less intense and shorter heat waves, (ii) heat wave effects are more pronounced during density-dependent population growth ph...