data.description.TXT from Precipitation during two weeks in spring influences reproductive success of first-year females in the long-lived Natterer's bat

Bats are characterized by low reproductive rates in contrast with most of other small mammals. This makes their populations vulnerable when inclement environmental conditions such as cold and rainy weather impair the reproductive success of females. The fine-scale effect of weather on bats, however, remains largely unknown. Using a sliding window analysis approach on an 18-year individualized dataset on six Natterer's bat (Myotis nattereri) colonies, we investigated the effect of fine-scale weather conditions on age-specific reproductive success. We found that increased precipitation during a short time window in spring strongly reduced the probability of successful reproduction of first-year (FY) females. Our data suggest that this time window is concomitant with implantation or early pregnancy, before substantial investment into embryo development. In addition, larger FY had higher reproductive success, suggesting that reproduction may be condition dependent in young females. Reproductive success of older females was not affected by either weather or individual parameters. Our results show that changes in precipitation pattern may compromise the reproductive success of FY females. Further studies are needed to better understand the impact of weather conditions on reproductive success in long-lived bats under climate change scenarios.与绝大多数其他小型哺乳动物相比，蝙蝠以较低的繁殖率为典型特征。这使得其种群在寒冷、降雨等恶劣环境条件损害雌性繁殖成功率时，极易受到冲击。然而，天气对蝙蝠的精细尺度影响目前仍鲜为人知。 我们针对6个纳氏鼠耳蝠（Myotis nattereri）种群的18年个体水平数据集，采用滑动窗口分析方法，探究了精细尺度天气条件对不同年龄层个体繁殖成功率的影响。研究发现，春季短时间窗口内的降雨量增加，会显著降低当年雌性个体（first-year，以下简称FY）的繁殖成功概率。数据表明，该时间窗口与胚胎着床或妊娠早期阶段重合，此时尚未对胚胎发育开展大量资源投入。此外，体型更大的当年雌性个体繁殖成功率更高，提示年轻雌性的繁殖行为可能受个体状态制约。 年长雌性的繁殖成功率则不受天气或个体参数的影响。 本研究结果显示，降雨模式的变化可能会损害当年雌性个体的繁殖成功率。未来仍需开展更多研究，以更好地理解气候变化背景下，天气条件对长寿蝙蝠繁殖成功率的影响。