Life history tactics shape amphibians’ demographic responses to the North Atlantic Oscillation

• Published in: Global Change Biology
• Main Authors: Cayuela, Hugo, Joly, Pierre, Schmidt, Benedikt R., Pichenot, Julian, Bonnaire, Eric, Priol, Pauline, Peyronel, Olivier, Laville, Mathias, Besnard, Aurélien
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'Ecologie des Hydrosystèmes Naturels et Anthropisés (LEHNA), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État (ENTPE)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations (UMR CBGP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), Karch, Institut für Evolutionsbiologie und Umweltwissenschaften, Universität Zürich Zürich = University of Zurich (UZH), Centre de Recherche et de Formation en Eco-éthologie (2C2A-CERFE), Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA), Office National des Forêts (ONF), Scientific Consulting, Ganges, Syndicat des Gorges de l'Ardèche, Saint-Remèze
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2017
• Subjects: Triturus cristatus; Salamandra salamandra; mphibians; Bombina variegata; climate; fast–slow continuum; life history tactics; North Atlantic Oscillation; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: https://sde.hal.science/hal-01622409; https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13672

International audience Over the last three decades, climate abnormalities have been reported to be involved in biodiversity decline by affecting population dynamics. A growing number of studies have shown that the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) influences the demographic parameters of a wide range of plant and animal taxa in different ways. Life history theory could help to understand these different demographic responses to the NAO. Indeed, theory states that the impact of weather variation on a species’ demographic traits should depend on its position along the fast–slow continuum. In particular, it is expected that NAO would have a higher impact on recruitment than on adult survival in slow species, while the opposite pattern is expected occur in fast species. To test these predictions, we used long-term capture–recapture data- sets (more than 15,000 individuals marked from 1965 to 2015) on different sur- veyed populations of three amphibian species in Western Europe: Triturus cristatus, Bombina variegata, and Salamandra salamandra. Despite substantial intraspecific variation, our study revealed that these three species differ in their position on a slow–fast gradient of pace of life. Our results also suggest that the differences in life history tactics influence amphibian responses to NAO fluctuations: Adult survival was most affected by the NAO in the species with the fastest pace of life (T. cristatus), whereas recruitment was most impacted in species with a slower pace of life (B. variegata and S. salamandra). In the context of climate change, our findings suggest that the capacity of organisms to deal with future changes in NAO values could be closely linked to their position on the fast–slow continuum.