DOI: 10.5061/dryad.1jwstqk6h
title: Data from: Fighting through the heat: How male aggression influences demography under recurrent heatwaves

description: Sexual selection is a potent evolutionary force that can enhance
 adaptation and reduce mutational load, while simultaneously reducing
 survival, or cause sexual conflict that reduces fitness for one or both
 sexes. Many populations today face not only gradual environmental changes
 but also extreme, short-term stress events. The combined effects of sexual
 and environmental selection on population demography during and after such
 events remain poorly understood, even though such combined effects could
 be crucial for the persistence of small, endangered populations under
 climate change. This dataset derives from a multi-generational
 experimental evolution study investigating how sexual selection interacts
 with thermal stress to shape population demography in the male-dimorphic
 soil mite Sancassania berlesei. It includes detailed generational
 records from 42 populations subjected to a factorial design manipulating
 sexual selection intensity (via pheromone-induced morph suppression) and
 exposure to recurrent heatwaves. Key variables include juvenile counts,
 adult survival before and after heat stress, sex ratios, male morph
 frequencies (fighter vs. scrambler), and extinction events, recorded over
 eight generations.The dataset enables fine-scale analysis of how sexually
 selected traits and environmental stressors jointly affect survival,
 sex-specific mortality, and extinction risk. It has strong reuse potential
 for researchers studying eco-evolutionary dynamics, sexual selection,
 inbreeding, and climate resilience in small populations. All data were
 collected under standardized laboratory conditions, with no human or
 vertebrate subjects involved.
description: # Fighting Through the Heat: How Male Aggression Influences Demography
 Under Recurrent Heatwaves Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.1jwstqk6h](10.5061/dryad.1jwstqk6h) ## Description of the
 data and file structure This dataset originates from a multi-generational
 experimental evolution study designed to test how male aggression,
 manipulated via pheromonal control of male morphs, influences population
 survival and extinction risk under recurrent heat stress. The focal
 species is *Sancassania berlesei*, a male-dimorphic soil mite. Forty-two
 replicate populations were tracked over eight generations under a 2×2
 factorial design: - **Pheromone regime**: Control (normal fighter
 prevalence) vs. Treatment (reduced fighter prevalence via pheromonal cues)
 - **Temperature regime**: Stable (23°C) vs. Heatwave (45-hour exposure,
 escalating from 34°C to 38°C) ### Files and variables #### File:
 SS_heat_demography_dryad.xlsx | **Sheet** | **variable** | **Description**
 | |
 :----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |  Rows highlighted in yellow are extinct population |   | | | | | | | overall\_data | vial | Population ID | | | Pheromone | Pheromone regime: Pheromone control- populations not exposed to pheromones, Pheromone treatment:  pheromone exposed populations | | | Temperature | Temperature regime: Stable: No heatwaves, Heatwave: 45 hrs heatwave at adult stage  | | | generation | generations | | | count\_no | First or the second adult counts  | | | female | number of females in a given count | | | fighter | number of fighters in a given count | | | scrambler | number of scramblers in a given count | | | trito | number of tritonymphs in the given counts | | | inter | number of intermorphs (males with one leg thickened instead of two) in the given counts | | | total | total number of individuals | | | larvae | number of juveniles (larave/protonymphs) used for starting a new generation  | | n/a for extinct populations and missing data for HF1 generation 7 count1 | | | | | | | | survival | line | Population ID | | | Pheromone | Pheromone regime: Pheromone control- populations not exposed to pheromones, Pheromone treatment:  pheromone exposed populations | | | Temperature | Temperature regime: Stable: No heatwaves, Heatwave: 45 hrs heatwave at adult stage  | | | generation | generations | | | surv | population survival, 1 -  survived; 2 - not surivived | | | juvenile | number of juveniles (larave/protonymphs) used for starting a new generation  | | | ad\_total\_I | total number of mites (females, scramblers, fighters and tritonymphs) in the first adult counts (before heatwaves) | | | ad\_total\_II | total number of mites (females, scramblers, fighters and tritonymphs) in the second adult counts (after heatwaves) | | | trito | number of tritonymphs in the first counts for each population in each generation | | n/a for extinct populations and missing data for HF1 generation 7 count1 | | | | | | | | sex | line | Population ID | | | Pheromone | Pheromone regime: Pheromone control- populations not exposed to pheromones, Pheromone treatment:  pheromone exposed populations | | | Temperature | Temperature regime: Stable: No heatwaves, Heatwave: 45 hrs heatwave at adult stage | | | generation | generations | | | sex | sex of the adult | | | ad\_total\_I | total number of observed adults of a given sex in the first adult counts (before heatwaves) | | | ad\_total\_II | total number of observed adults of a given sex in the second adult counts (after heatwaves) | | | trito | number of tritonymphs in the first counts for each population in each generation | | n/a for extinct populations, where number of tritonymphs in the first count is more than 1, missing data for HF1 generation 7 count1 | | | | | | | | morph | line | Population ID | | | Pheromone | Pheromone regime: Pheromone control- populations not exposed to pheromones, Pheromone treatment:  pheromone exposed populations | | | Temperature | Temperature regime: Stable: No heatwaves, Heatwave: 45 hrs heatwave at adult stage | | | gen | generations | | | count | First or the second adult counts  | | | female | number of females in a given count | | | fig | number of fighters in a given count | | | scr | number of scramblers in a given count | | | trito | number of tritonymphs in the first counts for each population in each generation | | | total | total individuals survived | | | larvae | number of juveniles (larave/protonymphs) used for starting a new generation  | | n/a for extinct populations and missing data for HF1 generation 7 count1 | | | | | | |