Data from: Climate effects on growth, body condition and survival depend on the genetic characteristics of the population

Climatic change is expected to affect individual life-histories and population dynamics, potentially increasing vulnerability to extinction. The importance of genetic diversity has been highlighted for adaptation and population persistence. However, whether responses of life-history traits to a given environmental condition depend on the genetic characteristics of a population remains elusive. Here we tested this hypothesis in the lizard Zootoca vivipara, by simultaneously manipulating habitat humidity, a major climatic predictor of Zootoca's distribution, and adult male colour morph frequency, a trait with genome-wide linkage. Interactive effects of humidity and morph frequency had immediate effects on growth and body condition of juveniles and yearlings, and on adult survival, and delayed effects on offspring size. In yearlings, higher humidity led to larger female body size, and lower humidity led to higher male compared to female survival. In juveniles and yearlings, some treatment
effects were compensated over time. The results show that individual responses to environmental conditions depend on the population's colour morph frequency, age class and sex, and that these affect intra- and inter-age class competition. Moreover, humidity affected the competitive environment, rather than imposing trait-based selection on specific colour morphs. This indicates that species' responses to changing environments, e.g. to climate change, are highly complex, and difficult to accurately reconstruct and predict without information on the genetic characteristics and demographic structure of populations.

气候变化预计将影响生物的个体生活史与种群动态，进而提升其灭绝脆弱性。遗传多样性在物种适应与种群存续中的重要性已得到广泛强调。然而，生活史性状对特定环境条件的响应是否依赖于种群的遗传特征，这一问题仍未阐明。本研究以胎生蜥蜴（Zootoca vivipara）为研究对象，通过同时操控生境湿度——该因子是胎生蜥蜴分布的关键气候预测因子——与成年雄性色型频率（adult male colour morph frequency，一种与全基因组连锁（genome-wide linkage）相关的性状），对上述假说进行了验证。研究发现，生境湿度与色型频率的交互效应可直接影响幼体与1龄个体的生长、身体状况以及成体存活率，并对后代体型产生滞后效应。在1龄个体中，较高湿度可使雌性体型更大，而较低湿度下雄性存活率高于雌性。在幼体与1龄个体中，部分处理效应可随时间得到补偿。本研究结果表明，生物对环境条件的个体响应依赖于种群的色型频率、年龄组与性别，且这些因素会影响年龄组内与年龄组间的竞争。此外，湿度主要通过改变竞争环境发挥作用，而非对特定色型施加基于性状的选择。这意味着，物种对气候变化等环境变化的响应机制极为复杂，若缺乏种群遗传特征与种群结构的相关信息，将难以准确重构与预测其响应过程。