Climatic and Geographic Predictors of Life History Variation in Eastern Massasauga (Sistrurus Catenatus): a Range-Wide Synthesis
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RESEARCH ARTICLE Climatic and geographic predictors of life history variation in Eastern Massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus): A range-wide synthesis Eric T. Hileman1³*, Richard B. King1, John M. Adamski2, Thomas G. Anton3, Robyn L. Bailey4, Sarah J. Baker5, Nickolas D. Bieser6, Thomas A. Bell, Jr7, Kristin M. Bissell8, Danielle R. Bradke9, Henry Campa, III10, Gary S. Casper11, Karen Cedar12, Matthew D. Cross13, Brett A. DeGregorio14, Michael J. Dreslik5, Lisa J. Faust15, Daniel S. Harvey14, Robert W. Hay16, Benjamin C. Jellen17, Brent D. Johnson18, Glenn Johnson19, Brooke D. Kiel9, Bruce A. Kingsbury6, Matthew J. Kowalski20, Yu Man Lee21, Andrew M. Lentini22, a1111111111 John C. Marshall6, David Mauger23, Jennifer A. Moore9, Rori A. Paloski24, Christopher a1111111111 A. Phillips5, Paul D. Pratt25, Thomas Preney25, Kent A. Prior26, Andrew Promaine27, a1111111111 Michael Redmer28, Howard K. Reinert29, Jeremy D. Rouse30, Kevin T. Shoemaker31, 27 32 33 34 a1111111111 Scott Sutton , Terry J. VanDeWalle , Patrick J. Weatherhead , Doug Wynn , 35 a1111111111 Anne Yagi 1 Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, United States of America, 2 Seneca Park Zoo, Rochester, New York, United States of America, 3 Department of Zoology, The Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, 4 Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America, 5 Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of OPEN ACCESS Illinois at Urbana, Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, United States of America, 6 Department of Biology, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States of America, 7 New Citation: Hileman ET, King RB, Adamski JM, Anton York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Albany, New York, United States of America, TG, Bailey RL, Baker SJ, et al. (2017) Climatic and 8 Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Division, Grass Lake, Michigan, United States of geographic predictors of life history variation in America, 9 Department of Biology, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan, United States of Eastern Massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus): A America, 10 Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United range-wide synthesis. PLoS ONE 12(2): e0172011. States of America, 11 University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Field Station, Saukville, Wisconsin, United States of America, 12 Ojibway Nature Centre, City of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, 13 Department of doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0172011 Biological Sciences, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, United States of America, Editor: Christopher M. Somers, University of 14 Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, Regina, CANADA United States of America, 15 Alexander Center for Applied Population Biology, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, 16 Turtles for Tomorrow, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America, Received: June 19, 2016 17 Urban Chestnut Brewing Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America, 18 Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Accepted: January 30, 2017 Forestry, Syracuse, New York, United States of America, 19 Department of Biology, State University of New Published: February 14, 2017 York Potsdam, Potsdam, New York, United States of America, 20 Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America, 21 Michigan Natural Features Inventory, Michigan State University Copyright: This is an open access article, free of all Extension, Lansing, Michigan, United States of America, 22 Toronto Zoo, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, copyright, and may be freely reproduced, 23 Forest Preserve District of Lake County, Libertyville, Illinois, United States of America, 24 Bureau of distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or Natural Heritage Conservation, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Madison, Wisconsin, United otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. States of America, 25 Ojibway Nature Centre, City of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, 26 Parks Canada, Gatineau, QueÂbec, Canada, 27 Parks Canada, Midland, Ontario, Canada, 28 United States Fish & Wildlife The work is made available under the Creative Service, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, 29 Department of Biology, The College of New Jersey, Commons CC0 public domain dedication. Ewing, New Jersey, United States of America, 30 Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Parry Sound, Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are Ontario, Canada, 31 Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, University of Nevada, within the paper and its Supporting Information Reno, Nevada, United States of America, 32 Stantec Consulting Services Inc, Independence, Iowa, United States of America, 33 Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, files. Urbana, Illinois, United States of America, 34 Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, Funding: This work was supported by U.S. Fish The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America, 35 Ministry of Natural Resources, and Wildlife Service, Edward Lowe Foundation, Vineland Station, Ontario, Canada Northern Illinois University, Columbus Zoo, EMR ³ ETH is senior author on this work SSP, Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, and Potawatomi * [email protected] Zoo. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0172011 February 14, 2017 1 / 27 Climatic and geographic predictors of life history variation Competing interests: The authors received funding Abstract from three commercial sources, the Columbus Zoo, Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, and Potawatomi Elucidating how life history traits vary geographically is important to understanding variation Zoo. This does not alter their adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. in population dynamics. Because many aspects of ectotherm life history are climate-depen- dent, geographic variation in climate is expected to have a large impact on population dynamics through effects on annual survival, body size, growth rate, age at first reproduc- tion, size±fecundity relationship, and reproductive frequency. The Eastern Massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus) is a small, imperiled North American rattlesnake with a distribution centered on the Great Lakes region, where lake effects strongly influence local conditions. To address Eastern Massasauga life history data gaps, we compiled data from 47 study sites representing 38 counties across the range. We used multimodel inference and general linear models with geographic coordinates and annual climate normals as explanatory vari- ables to clarify patterns of variation in life history traits. We found strong evidence for geo- graphic variation in six of nine life history variables. Adult female snout-vent length and neonate mass increased with increasing mean annual precipitation. Litter size decreased with increasing mean temperature, and the size±fecundity relationship and growth prior to first hibernation both increased with increasing latitude. The proportion of gravid females also increased with increasing latitude, but this relationship may be the result of geographi- cally varying detection bias. Our results provide insights into ectotherm life history variation and fill critical data gaps, which will inform Eastern Massasauga conservation efforts by improving biological realism for models of population viability and climate change. Introduction Knowledge of how life history traits vary geographically is important to understanding varia- tion in population dynamics and improving biological realism for models of population viabil- ity and response to climate change [1±3]. Phenotypic variation may be a consequence of developmental plasticity, heritable differences within and among populations, or interplay between these factors [4]. Additionally, biotic and climate gradients jointly regulate variation in resource availability and thus help shape life histories [5]. Consequently, selective pressures imposed by local conditions can result in life history variation among populations. This varia- tion may be especially evident in species with broad geographic distributions (e.g. [6±8]). However, heterogeneity among populations can also occur within small geographic areas when fine-scale climate (e.g., temperature, precipitation) and environmental factors (e.g., com- petition, prey availability, habitat composition and structure) vary sharply across the landscape [9±11]. The Eastern Massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus) is a small, secretive rattlesnake with a distri- bution centered on the Great Lakes region of North America. Although historically considered subspecies, multilocus DNA sequence data demonstrate that the Eastern Massasauga is taxo- nomically distinct from the Western Massasauga (S. tergeminus) [12, 13]. Local weather and climate within the Eastern Massasauga's range are strongly influenced by lake effects [14]. Many aspects of ectotherm life history are climate dependent ([15, 16], reviewed in [4, 17, 18]). Thus, geographic variation in climate is expected to have a large impact on Eastern Massasauga population dynamics through effects on annual survival, body size, growth