Oct 07, 2015 11:52 PM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

New research suggests that climate change could have some positive effects for a group of reptiles.

Swedish researchers found that higher temperatures result in Swedish sand lizards laying their eggs earlier, which leads to better fitness and survival in their offspring. However, they warn that climate change is likely to affect a whole suite of traits, in addition to egg-laying date, which together would have an unknown combined effect on survival and reproductive success.

"Shifts in the timing of lifecycle events in response to climate change is widespread, but the crucial question is how this affects an animal or plant's fitness. Are these shifts adaptive and will thus help the population to persist under climate change, or not?" Gabriella Ljungstrom, lead author of the study, said in a statement. "For this high-latitude population, our results contrast global projections of extinction risk for lizards as a result of climate change. This highlights the importance of taking spatial differences into account when predicting future effects of climate change on species and populations."

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from more than 350 female Swedish sand lizards (Lacerta agilis) over 15 years, and looked at the effects of local temperature on egg-laying date.

The results showed that female sand lizards laid eggs earlier in relatively warmer years. This means that the females respond adaptively to fairly rapid annual changes in ambient temperature, and indicates that climate warming may have some positive fitness effects in this high-latitude lizard, at least in the short term.

The findings are detailed in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.

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