Data from: Temperature can reverse sexual conflict, facilitating population growth
Data files
Oct 01, 2025 version files 32.73 KB
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data.txt
28.39 KB
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NetReproductiveRate.txt
2.65 KB
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README.md
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Abstract
Sexual conflict can lead to adaptations that increase male reproductive success at the expense of harming females (‘male harm’) and decreasing population growth. Studying the ecology of male harm is paramount to understanding how sexual conflict unfolds in nature and its consequences for population viability. We used seed beetles (Callosobruchus maculatus), a species where males harm females through harassment and traumatic insemination, to examine whether temperature (24ºC, 28ºC, 32ºC) modulates pre-copulatory harm (harassment) or pre- and post-copulatory harm (harassment and mating) in females exposed to low or high sexual conflict (one or two males, respectively), vs. once-mated females (no harm). Constant exposure to males decreased female fitness at warmer environments, particularly at 28ºC, and when females were subject to constant harassment and mating under high sexual conflict. In contrast, constant exposure to male harassment and mating increased female fitness at 24ºC, particularly under low sexual conflict (significant ~14% increase vs. control females). At the population level, under no harm female net reproductive rate was higher at 28ºC and 32ºC, but reversal of the cost/benefit balance of exposure to males resulted in optimal net reproductive rates at 24ºC under constant male-female cohabitation, hence rescuing population growth rate. Our findings show that, by dictating the outcome of female fitness under constant male exposure, temperature can modulate sexual conflict to the point of reversing it and facilitating evolutionary rescue. Our results support the notion that environmental variation decrease overall levels of sexual conflict in nature.
Datasets:
- data.txt
- NetReproductiveRate.txt
Description - legend
- data.txt: Data used to analyse LRS and Lifespan of focal females for the experiment.
- NetReproductiveRate.txt: Data used to obtain the Net Reproductive Rate of each focal group of females in the experiment.
Net reproductive rate of our populations as the sum of the lx (the number of surviving individuals at the beginning of age class X) and mx (the number of living individuals born per female in each interval class), following equation: R~0~ = Σ lxmx. It was calculated for ‘no harm’ (control; E) and ‘mating and harassment’ treatments (both under low- and high-intensity sexual conflict; A y B) (see Fig. 3)
Variables
- Variable "Temp". Three temperatures: cold=24°C,med=28°C,hot=32°C
- Variable "Treatment". Five levels of treatments (i.e. "treatment"): low or high sexual conflict in mating and harassment (A or B treatments, respectively), low or high sexual conflict in harassment (C or D treatments, respectively), and no harm (treatment E).
- Variable "Type". Three levels of type of treatment: mating and harassment = "mating", harassment = "harassment", no harm = "other"
- Variable "LRS": Lifetime Reproductive Success, which is the average number of offspring of focal females across their life.
- Variable "Lifespan": Days of life of focal females.
- Variables "C1-C6": Times of females lifespan at which the number of offspring was accounted. It was measured every 2-3 days each week across the experiment.
All analyses are to be performed on focal adult females of Callosobruchus maculatus
