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Influence of landscape connectivity on newt’s response to a warmer climate

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Abstract

Context

Climate change and habitat fragmentation exert considerable pressures on biodiversity. The spatial distribution of microclimatic refuges in the landscape can influence species responses to warming climates.

Objectives

Using a semi-natural experiment, we investigated the potential synergetic effects of climate warming and habitat connectivity on a single amphibian species.

Methods

We monitored populations of the palmate newt, Lissotriton helveticus, under two climate treatments, a warmer climate (+ ~ 2 °C) or a present-day climate, in mesocosms either isolated or connected to the other climatic conditions. We assessed the abundance and phenotype (snout-vent length, body condition and skin coloration: darkness and redness) of juvenile and adult newts, and the dispersal propensity of juveniles.

Results

Over the 4 years of climatic manipulation, populations tended to increase more in the present-day than in the warmer climate. Warmer climates decreased the abundance of adult newts and altered the phenotypic composition of populations with darker and less red newts. However, connectivity between the two climates cancelled out the effect of a warmer climate on abundance and reversed the effects on phenotype composition. We further found that juvenile newts from the present-day climate treatment tended to emigrate more from warmer conditions during our laboratory dispersal assay and that population isolation disrupted a common covariation between emigration propensity and body size, leg length and skin darkness.

Conclusions

Our results point to a synergetic effect of climate warming and fragmentation on the demography of newt populations and emigration decisions of juveniles, suggesting that microclimate refuges and their accessibility play a key role in buffering the impacts of climate warming, with potential implications for amphibian diversity at a regional scale.

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Data availability

The datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions, Dominic Zugai for editing and reviewing this manuscript for English language, Olivier Guillaume, Thomas Deruelles, Guillaume Toumi, Elvire Bestion and Audrey Trochet for their help or technical support in the achievement of the project.

Funding

This work was supported by funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No. 817779 to JC), by the French Laboratory of Excellence project ‘TULIP’ (Grant Nos. ANR-10-LABX-41 and ANR-11-IDEX-0002-02) and by an ‘Investissements d’avenir’ program from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (grant no. ANR-11-INBS-0001AnaEE-Services). LW was supported by the Fyssen Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Fonds de la recherche scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Ecology and Conservation of Amphibians (LECA), Freshwater and Oceanic Science Unit of Research (FOCUS), University of Liège, 4020, Liège, Belgium

    Laurane Winandy

  2. Laboratoire Évolution and Diversité Biologique (EDB), UMR5174, CNRS, IRD, Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse, France

    Laurane Winandy, Félix Pellerin, Lucie Di Gesu & Julien Cote

  3. Station d’Écologie Théorique et Expérimentale (SETE), UAR2029, CNRS, 2 route du CNRS, 09200, Moulis, France

    Delphine Legrand

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  1. Laurane Winandy
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Contributions

JC, LW and DL designed the study. LW, FP and LDG performed the experiment. JC analyzed the pictures on ImageJ. LW performed the statistical analysis and wrote the first version of the manuscript. All authors contributed substantially to manuscript revisions and gave final approval for publication.

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Correspondence to Laurane Winandy.

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Winandy, L., Pellerin, F., Di Gesu, L. et al. Influence of landscape connectivity on newt’s response to a warmer climate. Landsc Ecol 38, 2103–2120 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-023-01685-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-023-01685-z

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