Facultative polyandry protects females from compromised male fertility caused by heatwave conditions
Description
Females are able to recover fertility through polyandry when male fertility is compromised by heatwaves. Facultative polyandry enables females to recover from losses to fitness which can have consequences both at the individual level as well as at the population level. Across the animal kingdom females of many species mate multiply and the costs of mating multiply can be mitigated by polyandry. Under global climate change heatwaves are getting more intense and persistent with male-specific sterily becoming commonplace in many species (especially ectotherms). Here we show how polyandry could be a key proximate mechanism in improving female fitness between mating episodes.
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Steps to reproduce
Here, we use an experimental evolution approach to study how facultative polyandry promotes female fitness when males are compromised by heatwaves. We use a fully factorial experimental design that is blinded for behavioural data collection and all raw data are analysed using R and the complete codes as well as the raw data files are provided here for reproduction.