Data from: Pace of life syndrome under warming and pollution: integrating life history, behavior and physiology across latitudes

To fully comprehend and predict the impact of drivers of global change such as climate warming and pollution, integrated multi-trait approaches are needed. As organismal traits are often correlated, responses to stressors are expected to induce coordinated changes in many traits. A promising framework to study this is the pace-of-life syndrome (POLS), which predicts the integration of life-history, behavioral and physiological traits along a fast-slow continuum. Using an integrative multi-trait approach we evaluated the presence of a POLS both within and across latitudes and how POLS patterns are affected by warming and metal pollution. We studied this in Ischnura elegans damselfly larvae of replicated low-and high latitude populations that strongly differ in voltinism (3-4 generations per year vs. 1 every two years) reared in a common-garden experiment at two temperatures. Across latitudes, life history, behavior and physiology covaried in accordance with the POLS, with the fast-paced low-latitude damselflies characterized by a fast growth rate, high activity and more explorative and risk taking behavior, fast metabolic rate and low investment in immune function (activity of phenoloxidase). This fast POLS strategy was associated with a higher sensitivity to metal exposure and a higher vulnerability to predation. Warming caused opposite responses between the latitudes consistent with differential thermal adaptation in growth rate, behavior and oxidative stress parameters. Despite this, damselflies of both latitudes showed a consistent pattern in phenotypic correlations among traits that, moreover was not affected by warming and metal exposure. Within latitudes there was no full support for the POLS. More active larvae were more explorative and risk taking, which aligned with the fast-slow life-history axis, but less strong than at the across-latitude level. Physiological traits were also integrated within latitudes, yet there was no unambiguous coupling with the fast-slow life-history continuum. The consistent syndrome structure, if underpinned by genetic correlations, may restrict the independent evolution of individual traits, yet may not necessarily constrain adaptive evolution of integrated trait sets. This is because the covariance pattern was to a large extent similar across latitudes and within latitudes, suggesting adaptive trait integration guiding adaptive evolution of trait sets along the fast-slow continuum.

为全面理解并预测气候变暖、污染等全球变化驱动因子的影响，亟需采用整合多性状研究方法。由于生物个体的性状往往存在相关性，生物对胁迫因子的响应会引发多个性状的协同变化。用于开展此类研究的一个极具潜力的框架是生命速率综合征（pace-of-life syndrome, POLS），该框架预测生命史、行为与生理性状会沿着快慢连续轴实现整合。本研究采用整合多性状研究方法，评估了纬度内与跨纬度尺度下生命速率综合征的存在性，以及气候变暖和金属污染对该综合征格局的影响。我们以经重复采样、世代数差异显著的低纬度与高纬度种群的蓝尾豆娘（Ischnura elegans）幼虫为研究对象：低纬度种群每年可繁殖3-4代，高纬度种群每2年仅繁殖1代，并在两种温度条件下开展了同质园实验。跨纬度尺度下，生命史、行为与生理性状的协变模式符合生命速率综合征的预测：快速率型的低纬度豆娘表现出更快的生长速率、更高的活动水平与更强的探索、冒险行为，同时代谢速率更快，免疫投入（酚氧化酶活性）更低。这种快速率型的生命速率综合征策略，与更高的金属暴露敏感性以及更强的捕食者易感性相关。气候变暖引发了两个纬度种群间相反的响应，这与它们在生长速率、行为与氧化应激参数上的差异化热适应特征相符。尽管如此，两个纬度种群的豆娘均表现出一致的性状间表型相关格局，且该格局未受气候变暖和金属暴露的影响。在纬度内尺度下，生命速率综合征并未得到完全支持：活动水平更高的幼虫表现出更强的探索与冒险行为，这与快慢生命史轴相符，但关联强度弱于跨纬度尺度下的情况。生理性状在纬度内尺度下同样存在整合，但并未与快慢生命史连续轴形成明确的耦合关系。若该一致的综合征结构由遗传相关所支撑，则可能会限制单个性状的独立演化，但未必会约束整合性状集的适应性演化。这是因为性状协变格局在跨纬度与纬度内尺度下均高度相似，表明适应性性状整合会引导性状集沿着快慢连续轴实现适应性演化。