Data and code from: Beyond temperature: Relative humidity systematically shifts juvenile thermal performance and projected population growth in a malaria vector

Understanding how temperature-sensitive organisms respond to environmental
change is central to addressing challenges in public health, biodiversity
conservation, and food security. For many ectotherms, abiotic and biotic
factors shape their abundance and distribution by generating
stage-specific variation in life-history traits. Although previous studies
have examined temperature, rainfall, competition, and habitat quality in
relation to maximal population growth rate (rm), relative humidity has
rarely been incorporated into trait-based thermal performance frameworks.
Using laboratory experiments, we show that relative humidity alters
juvenile life-history trait responses in Anopheles stephensi, an important
malaria vector. We then integrate these humidity-dependent juvenile trait
responses into an analytic rm model to examine how relative humidity
shifts the temperature dependence of projected population growth.
Heuristic climate-suitability comparisons further illustrate that
temperature–humidity interactions acting through juvenile traits alone can
alter qualitative inference about when and where temperature-only models
may over- or underestimate environmental suitability. These results
highlight the importance of incorporating humidity alongside temperature
when assessing ectotherm responses to climatic variation.