Effects of temperature on mating behaviour and mating success: a meta-analysis

In light of global climate change, there is a pressing need to understand
how populations will respond to rising temperatures. Understanding the
effects of temperature changes on mating behaviour is particularly
important, given its implications for population viability. To this end,
we performed a meta-analysis of 53 studies to examine how temperature
changes influence mating latency, choosiness, and mating success. We
hypothesized that if higher temperatures make mate searching and mate
assessment more costly due to elevated metabolism, this may lead to a
reduction in mating latency and choosiness, thereby increasing overall
mating success. We found no evidence for an overall effect of temperature
on mating latency, choosiness, or mating success. There was an increase in
mating success when animals were exposed to higher temperatures during
mating trials, but not when they were exposed before mating trials. In
addition, in a subset of studies that measured both mating latency and
mating success, there was a strong negative relationship between the
effect sizes for these traits. This suggests that a decrease in mating
latency at higher temperatures was associated with an increase in mating
success and vice versa. In sum, our meta-analysis provides new insights
into the effects of temperature on mating patterns. The absence of a
consistent directional effect of temperature on mating behaviours and
mating success suggests it may be difficult to predict changes in the
strength of sexual selection in natural populations in a warming world.
Nevertheless, there is some evidence that (i) higher temperatures during
mating may lead to an increase in mating success and that (ii) an increase
in mating success is associated with a decrease in mating latency.