Drought-induced Suppression of Female Fecundity in a Capital Breeder.

ABSTRACT: Human-induced global climate change is exerting increasingly strong selective pressures on a myriad of fitness traits that affect organisms. These traits, in turn, are influenced by a variety of environmental parameters such as temperature and precipitation, particularly in ectothermic taxa such as amphibians and reptiles. Over the past several decades, severe and prolonged episodes of drought are becoming commonplace throughout North America. Documentation of responses to this environmental crisis, however, is often incomplete, particularly in cryptic species. Here, we investigated reproduction in a population of pitviper snakes (copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix), a live-bearing capital breeder. This population experienced a severe drought from 2012 through 2016. We tested whether decli

SUBMITTER: Smith CF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6820553 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature