# Intraspecific priority effects in response to egg hatching delay in a pond-breeding salamander

## TL;DR

This study shows how delayed hatching in salamanders affects survival and body size, with effects depending on the timing and duration of hatching delays.

## Contribution

The study reveals context-dependent intraspecific priority effects in salamanders due to hatching phenology shifts.

## Key findings

- Hatching delay showed non-linear effects on survival and body size, with the greatest asynchrony causing highest mortality and largest body sizes.
- Hatching delays later in the season had stronger effects, likely due to temperature differences.
- Phenological shifts in hatching can alter intraspecific interactions in a context-dependent manner.

## Abstract

As reproduction phenologies shift with climate change, populations can experience intraspecific priority effects, wherein early hatching cohorts experience an advantage over late-hatching cohorts, resulting in altered demography. Our study objective was to identify how variation in egg hatching phenology alters intraspecific interactions in small-mouthed salamanders, Ambystoma texanum. We addressed two research questions: (Q1) How are demographic responses altered by variation in the temporal duration of hatching between cohorts, and (Q2) How does the seasonality of hatching delays affect demographic responses? We manipulated hatching phenologies of A. texanum eggs and reared larvae in outdoor mesocosms to metamorphosis. For Q1, hatching delay exhibited non-linear relationships with survival and body size, with the greatest asynchrony in cohort additions resulting in the highest mortality and largest body sizes. For Q2, hatching delay effects were stronger (i.e., survival was lower and body sizes larger) when they occurred later in the season, potentially due to temperature differences that larvae experienced. Overall, our results demonstrate that changes in intraspecific interactions due to phenological shifts can be context-dependent, depending on the strength (i.e., temporal duration) and seasonality of such processes. Identifying context-dependencies of phenological shifts will be critical for predicting changes in organismal demographics with climatic shifts.