DOI: 10.5061/dryad.t4t1q
title: Data from: Interplay of robustness and plasticity of life history traits drives ecotypic differentiation in thermally distinct habitats

description: Phenotypic plasticity describes the ability of an individual to alter its
 phenotype in response to the environment and is potentially adaptive when
 dealing with environmental variation. However, robustness in the face of a
 changing environment may often be beneficial for traits that are tightly
 linked to fitness. We hypothesized that robustness of some traits may
 depend on specific patterns of plasticity within and among other traits.
 We used a reaction norm approach to study robustness and phenotypic
 plasticity of three life history traits of the collembolan Orchesella
 cincta in environments with different thermal regimes. We measured adult
 mass, age at maturity and growth rate of males and females from heath and
 forest habitats at two temperatures (12 and 22 °C). We found evidence for
 ecotype-specific robustness of female adult mass to temperature, with a
 higher level of robustness in the heath ecotype. This robustness is
 facilitated by plastic adjustments of growth rate and age at maturity.
 Furthermore, female fecundity is strongly influenced by female adult mass,
 explaining the importance of realizing a high mass across temperatures for
 females. These findings indicate that different predicted outcomes of life
 history theory can be combined within one species’ ontogeny and that
 models describing life history strategies should not assume that traits
 like growth rate are maximized under all conditions. On a methodological
 note, we report a systematic inflation of variation when standard
 deviations and correlation coefficients are calculated from family means
 as opposed to individual data within a family structure.
description: Springtails measured
 traitsCollected data on
 offspring from field collected spingtails, at two temperatures. Column
 headings: familie = family of sibs from same egg batch, location = origin
 of original population, either Kampina nature reserve (k) or Hilversumse
 heide nature reserve (h), ecotype = forest (f) or heath (h), temp =
 temperature at which eggs were placed (12 or 22 C), time = age at maturity
 in days, sex = sex of individual (m= male or f= female), mass = mass at
 maturity in ug, rate = growth rate ug/days, lnmass/lnrate/lntime = natural
 logarithm of the traits mass, rate and time as used in random regression
 model.Springtails.csvfecundityfecundity of female springtails measured as number of eggs in first egg batch. Column headings: familie = family of sibs from same egg batch, location = origin of original population, either Kampina nature reserve (k) or Hilversumse heide nature reserve (h), ecotype = forest (f) or heath (h), temp = temperature at which mother developed (12 or 22 C), eggnumber = number of eggs in first laid batch, mass_mother = mass of the mother when first egg batch was produced, lnmass_mother = natural logarithm of mass_mother used in linear mixed model.eggvolumeeggvolume of eggs used to set up experiment. Column headings: familie = family of sibs from same egg batch, location = origin of original population, either Kampina nature reserve (k) or Hilversumse heide nature reserve (h), ecotype = forest (f) or heath (h), volmm3 = volume of egg in mm3.