Moderate climate warming scenarios during embryonic and post-embryonic stages benefit a cold-climate lizard

Warming temperatures caused by climate change are predicted to vary temporally and spatially. For mid- and high-latitude reptiles, the seasonal variation in warming temperatures experienced by embryos and hatchlings may determine offspring fitness, yet this has remained largely unexplored.
To evaluate the independent and interactive influence of seasonal variation in warming temperatures on embryonic and hatchling development, we incubated eggs and reared hatchlings of a cold-climate oviparous ectothermic species, the Heilongjiang grass lizard (Takydromus amurensis), following a 2 × 2 factorial design (present climate vs. warming climate for embryos × present climate vs. warming climate for hatchlings). We then evaluated embryonic and hatchling development, including hatching success, incubation period, initial hatchling body size, hatchling metabolic rate, growth rate, and survival in the mesocosms.
We found that warming temperatures shortened the incubation period and produced hatchli...