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Experimental increases in temperature mean and variance alter reproductive behaviors in the dung beetle Phanaeus vindex

View ORCID ProfileWilliam H. Kirkpatrick, View ORCID ProfileKimberly S. Sheldon
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.25.432276
William H. Kirkpatrick
1Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN 37996-1610
2Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States of America
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Kimberly S. Sheldon
1Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN 37996-1610
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  • For correspondence: ksheldon@utk.edu
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Abstract

Temperature profoundly impacts insect development, but plasticity of reproductive behaviors may mediate the impacts of temperature change on earlier life stages. Few studies have examined the potential for behavioral plasticity of adults to buffer developing offspring from warmer, more variable temperatures associated with climate change. We used a field manipulation to examine whether the dung beetle Phanaeus vindex alters breeding behaviors in response to climate change and whether adult behavioral shifts protect offspring from temperature increases. Dung beetles lay eggs inside brood balls made of dung that are buried underground for the entirety of offspring development. Depth of the brood ball impacts the temperatures offspring experience with consequences for beetle development. We placed females in either control or greenhouse treatments that simultaneously increased temperature mean and variance. We found that females produced smaller brood balls but buried them deeper in the greenhouse treatment, suggesting burial depth may come at a cost to brood ball size, which can impact offspring nutrition. Despite being buried deeper, brood balls from the greenhouse treatment experienced warmer mean temperatures but similar amplitudes of temperature fluctuation relative to the controls. Our findings suggest adult behaviors may buffer offspring from increased temperature variation due to climate change.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted February 26, 2021.
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Experimental increases in temperature mean and variance alter reproductive behaviors in the dung beetle Phanaeus vindex
William H. Kirkpatrick, Kimberly S. Sheldon
bioRxiv 2021.02.25.432276; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.25.432276
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Experimental increases in temperature mean and variance alter reproductive behaviors in the dung beetle Phanaeus vindex
William H. Kirkpatrick, Kimberly S. Sheldon
bioRxiv 2021.02.25.432276; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.25.432276

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