Distinct impacts of food restriction and warming on life history traits
affect population fitness in vertebrate ectotherms
Abstract
Body size shifts in ectotherms are mostly attributed to the Temperature
Size Rule stating that warming speeds up initial growth rate but leads
to smaller size when food availability does not limit growth.
Nevertheless, climate warming can decrease food availability, which can
influence growth, fecundity and survival. However, the interactive
effects of temperature and food availability on life history traits have
been mostly studied in small invertebrate species. In contrast, we have
limited information on how temperature and food availability jointly
influence life history traits in vertebrate predators and how changes in
different life history traits combines to influence population
demography. We investigated the independent and interactive effects of
temperature and food availability on traits of the medaka fish Oryzias
latipes. We used our empirical estimates of vital rates as input
parameters of an Integral Projection model to predict how modifications
in vital rates translate into population demography. Our results confirm
that warming leads to a higher initial growth rate and lower size
leading to crossed growth curves between the two temperatures.
Food-restricted fish were smaller than ad libitum fed fish throughout
the experiment. Fish reared at 30 °C matured younger, had smaller size
at maturity, had a higher fecundity but had a shorter life span than
fish reared at 20 °C. Food restriction increased survival under both
temperature conditions. Warming reduces generation time and increases
mean fitness in comparison to the cold treatments. Food restriction
increased generation time and fitness in the cold treatment but had no
effect in the warm treatment. Our results highlight the importance of
accounting for the interaction between temperature and food availability
to understand how body size shifts can affects vital rates and
population demography. This is of importance in the context of global
warming as resources are predicted to change with increasing
temperatures.