TY - JOUR AU - Ljungström, Gabriella AU - Wapstra, Erik AU - Olsson, Mats PY - 2015 DA - 2015/10/08 TI - Sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) phenology in a warming world JO - BMC Evolutionary Biology SP - 206 VL - 15 IS - 1 AB - Present-day climate change has altered the phenology (the timing of periodic life cycle events) of many plant and animal populations worldwide. Some of these changes have been adaptive, leading to an increase in population fitness, whereas others have been associated with fitness decline. Representing short-term responses to an altered weather regime, hitherto observed changes are largely explained by phenotypic plasticity. However, to track climatically induced shifts in optimal phenotype as climate change proceeds, evolutionary capacity in key limiting climate- and fitness-related traits is likely to be crucial. In order to produce realistic predictions about the effects of climate change on species and populations, a main target for conservation biologists is thus to assess the potential of natural populations to respond by these two mechanisms. In this study we use a large 15-year dataset on an ectotherm model, the Swedish sand lizard (Lacerta agilis), to investigate how higher spring temperature is likely to affect oviposition timing in a high latitude population, a trait strongly linked to offspring fitness and survival. SN - 1471-2148 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-015-0476-0 DO - 10.1186/s12862-015-0476-0 ID - Ljungström2015 ER -