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Miller KD, Atkins Coleman AJ, O'Neil KL, Mueller AJ, Pell RD, Bowers EK. Individual Optimization of Reproductive Investment and the Cost of Incubation in a Wild Songbird. Am Nat 2024; 203:254-266. [PMID: 38306278 DOI: 10.1086/727967] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2024]
Abstract
AbstractDespite avid interest in life history trade-offs and the costs of reproduction, evidence that increased parental allocation reduces subsequent breeding productivity is mixed. This uncertainty may be attributable to environmental heterogeneity in space and time, necessitating experiments across a range of ecological contexts. Over three breeding seasons, we cross-fostered clutches between nests to manipulate incubation duration in a wild population of Carolina wrens, a species in which only females incubate, to test for a cost of incubation on current and future reproduction. Prolonged incubation affected maternal productivity in a manner dependent on the current environment and initial investment in eggs, suggesting that incubation is optimized according to other components of reproduction and individual quality. Effects of incubation duration on foster nestling condition varied between years, being costly in one, beneficial in another, and neutral in the third. The proportion of young fledged, females' probability of breeding again within seasons, and subsequent clutch sizes all declined with increasing incubation effort-effects that became more pronounced as seasons progressed. Therefore, costs of incubation were almost entirely dependent on maternal quality and environmental variation, illustrating the importance of conducting experiments across a range of environmental settings for understanding the costs of reproduction and evolution of life histories.
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Jiang Y, Jin L, Fu YQ, Liao WB. Association of social group with both life-history traits and brain size in cooperatively breeding birds. ANIM BIOL 2021. [DOI: 10.1163/15707563-bja10054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Social group is associated with life-history traits and can predict brain size variation in cooperative primates and some other mammal groups, but such explicit relationships remain enigmatic in cooperatively breeding birds. Indeed, some compositions of social group in cooperative species (e.g., helper number and group size) would affect the fitness of breeders by providing alloparental care. Here, we conducted comparative tests of the relationship between the social group and both life-history traits and brain size across 197 species of cooperatively breeding birds using phylogenetically controlled comparative analyses. We did not find any correlations between helper numbers and both life-history traits and brain size. However, we found that maximum group size was positively associated with clutch size. Moreover, average group size has positive associations with body mass and relative brain size. Our findings suggest that helper numbers cannot promote variation in relative brain size, while larger groups may predict bigger brains in cooperatively breeding birds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Jiang
- Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637009, Sichuan, China
- Key Laboratory of Artificial Propagation and Utilization in Anurans of Nanchong City, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637009, Sichuan, China
- Institute of Eco-adaptation in Amphibians and Reptiles, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637009, Sichuan, China
| | - Long Jin
- Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637009, Sichuan, China
- Key Laboratory of Artificial Propagation and Utilization in Anurans of Nanchong City, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637009, Sichuan, China
- Institute of Eco-adaptation in Amphibians and Reptiles, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637009, Sichuan, China
| | - Yi Qiang Fu
- College of Life Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610101, Sichuan, China
| | - Wen Bo Liao
- Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637009, Sichuan, China
- Key Laboratory of Artificial Propagation and Utilization in Anurans of Nanchong City, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637009, Sichuan, China
- Institute of Eco-adaptation in Amphibians and Reptiles, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637009, Sichuan, China
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3
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Bründl AC, Sorato E, Sallé L, Thiney AC, Kaulbarsch S, Chaine AS, Russell AF. Experimentally induced increases in fecundity lead to greater nestling care in blue tits. Proc Biol Sci 2019; 286:20191013. [PMID: 31238840 PMCID: PMC6599988 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.1013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Models on the evolution of bi-parental care typically assume that maternal investment in offspring production is fixed and predict subsequent contributions to offspring care by the pair are stabilized by partial compensation. While experimental tests of this prediction are supportive, exceptions are commonplace. Using wild blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), we provide, to our knowledge, the first investigation into the effects of increasing maternal investment in offspring production for subsequent contributions to nestling provisioning by mothers and male partners. Females that were induced to lay two extra eggs provisioned nestlings 43% more frequently than controls, despite clutch size being made comparable between treatment groups at the onset of incubation. Further, experimental males did not significantly reduce provisioning rates as expected by partial compensation, and if anything contributed slightly (9%) more than controls. Finally, nestlings were significantly heavier in experimental nests compared with controls, suggesting that the 22% average increase in provisioning rates by experimental pairs was beneficial. Our results have potential implications for our understanding of provisioning rules, the maintenance of bi-parental care and the timescale over which current–future life-history trade-offs operate. We recommend greater consideration of female investment at the egg stage to more fully understand the evolutionary dynamics of bi-parental care.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aisha C Bründl
- 1 Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter , Penryn Campus, Treliever Road, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9FE , UK.,2 Station d'Ecologie Théorique et Expérimentale (UMR5321), CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier , 2 route du CNRS, 09200 Moulis , France
| | - Enrico Sorato
- 2 Station d'Ecologie Théorique et Expérimentale (UMR5321), CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier , 2 route du CNRS, 09200 Moulis , France
| | - Louis Sallé
- 2 Station d'Ecologie Théorique et Expérimentale (UMR5321), CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier , 2 route du CNRS, 09200 Moulis , France
| | - Alice C Thiney
- 2 Station d'Ecologie Théorique et Expérimentale (UMR5321), CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier , 2 route du CNRS, 09200 Moulis , France
| | - Sonja Kaulbarsch
- 1 Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter , Penryn Campus, Treliever Road, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9FE , UK
| | - Alexis S Chaine
- 2 Station d'Ecologie Théorique et Expérimentale (UMR5321), CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier , 2 route du CNRS, 09200 Moulis , France.,3 Toulouse School of Economics, Institute for Advanced Studies in Toulouse , 21 allée de Brienne, 31015 Toulouse , France
| | - Andrew F Russell
- 1 Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter , Penryn Campus, Treliever Road, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9FE , UK
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4
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Edme A, Zobač P, Korsten P, Albrecht T, Schmoll T, Krist M. Moderate heritability and low evolvability of sperm morphology in a species with high risk of sperm competition, the collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis. J Evol Biol 2018; 32:205-217. [PMID: 30449037 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2018] [Revised: 11/02/2018] [Accepted: 11/14/2018] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Spermatozoa represent the morphologically most diverse type of animal cells and show remarkable variation in size across and also within species. To understand the evolution of this diversity, it is important to reveal to what degree this variation is genetic or environmental in origin and whether this depends on species' life histories. Here we applied quantitative genetic methods to a pedigreed multigenerational data set of the collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis, a passerine bird with high levels of extra-pair paternity, to partition genetic and environmental sources of phenotypic variation in sperm dimensions for the first time in a natural population. Narrow-sense heritability (h2 ) of total sperm length amounted to 0.44 ± 0.14 SE, whereas the corresponding figure for evolvability (estimated as coefficient of additive genetic variation, CVa ) was 0.02 ± 0.003 SE. We also found an increase in total sperm length within individual males between the arrival and nestling period. This seasonal variation may reflect constraints in the production of fully elongated spermatozoa shortly after arrival at the breeding grounds. There was no evidence of an effect of male age on sperm dimensions. In many previous studies on laboratory populations of several insect, mammal and avian species, heritabilities of sperm morphology were higher, whereas evolvabilities were similar. Explanations for the differences in heritability may include variation in the environment (laboratory vs. wild), intensity of sexual selection via sperm competition (high vs. low) and genetic architecture that involves unusual linkage disequilibrium coupled with overdominance in one of the studied species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anaïs Edme
- Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology and Laboratory of Ornithology, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
| | - Petr Zobač
- Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology and Laboratory of Ornithology, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
| | - Peter Korsten
- Department of Animal Behaviour, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Tomáš Albrecht
- Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic.,Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Tim Schmoll
- Evolutionary Biology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Miloš Krist
- Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology and Laboratory of Ornithology, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic.,Museum of Natural History, Olomouc, Czech Republic
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5
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Poorboy DM, Bowers EK, Sakaluk SK, Thompson CF. Experimental cross-fostering of eggs reveals effects of territory quality on reproductive allocation. Behav Ecol 2018; 29:1190-1198. [PMID: 30214135 PMCID: PMC6129948 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ary098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2018] [Revised: 06/22/2018] [Accepted: 06/28/2018] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Parental and territory quality are often correlated in territorial birds, and both factors influence the resources allocated to offspring. Surprisingly, the relative contribution of these two components of variation in parental investment remains obscure. We experimentally decoupled the normal covariation between parental quality and territory quality to test the hypothesis that territory quality influences female prenatal and postnatal reproductive allocation. Territories were categorized into low-, intermediate-, and high-quality based on fledging success of nests over the previous 6 years (nesting sites are fixed in space).To decouple covariation between territory quality and individual quality, nestbox entrance size was increased on high-quality territories and left small on poor-quality sites because house wrens (Troglodytes aedon) prefer small over large entrances to their nest sites. We found a significant prenatal effect of territory quality on nestling provisioning: when reared on intermediate-quality territories, nestlings hatching from eggs produced on low-quality territories were provisioned at a higher rate than those hatching from eggs produced on high-quality territories. We propose that the increased provisioning was brought about by increased nestling begging mediated by a maternally derived compound, such as corticosterone, transferred to the eggs of stressed females in poor-quality habitat.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dylan M Poorboy
- Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Section, School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA
| | - E Keith Bowers
- Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Section, School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences and Edward J. Meeman Biological Station, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA
| | - Scott K Sakaluk
- Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Section, School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA
| | - Charles F Thompson
- Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Section, School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA
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6
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Edme A, Zobač P, Opatová P, Šplíchalová P, Munclinger P, Albrecht T, Krist M. Do ornaments, arrival date, and sperm size influence mating and paternity success in the collared flycatcher? Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-016-2242-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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7
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Liang W, Møller AP, Stokke BG, Yang C, Kovařík P, Wang H, Yao CT, Ding P, Lu X, Moksnes A, Røskaft E, Grim T. Geographic variation in egg ejection rate by great tits across 2 continents. Behav Ecol 2016. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arw061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
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8
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Krist M, Munclinger P. Context dependence of maternal effects: testing assumptions of optimal egg size, differential, and sex allocation models. Ecology 2016; 96:2726-36. [PMID: 26649393 DOI: 10.1890/14-2450.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
If offspring develop in adverse conditions, the maternal component of their phenotypic variation might increase due to the stronger dependence of offspring traits on parental investment. This should result in increased parental investment to individual offspring, as assumed by the model of optimal egg size. The opposite pattern, i.e., stronger dependence of offspring fitness on parental investment and consequently larger parental investment under good conditions is assumed by both the theory of differential allocation if attractive males provide material benefits, and reproductive compensation if they invest less into paternal care. Another influential idea is the Trivers-Willard model, which assumes sex-specific dependence of offspring fitness on parental investment. Here we tested these ideas by examining the effects of egg size on offspring fitness across many postnatal contexts in the Collared Flycatcher Ficedula albicollis. We employed a cross-fostering design that generated variation in egg size within nests and used brood means of fledgling mass as a functional measure of the quality of rearing conditions. Effects of egg size on three offspring traits, including lifetime reproductive success of recruits, were more pronounced in low-quality broods. These results support the assumption of the model of optimal egg size. Based on female preference for males providing material benefits, this pattern could support differential allocation, if attractive males invest less in paternal care, or reproductive compensation, if they invest more. By comparison, we did not find any evidence for sex specificity of fitness returns that might explain sex monomorphism of egg size in this species. The challenge for future studies will be the integration of components of parental investment and offspring fitness into their global measures and testing how the former affects the latter across gradients of postnatal conditions.
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9
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Paquet M, Smiseth PT. Maternal effects as a mechanism for manipulating male care and resolving sexual conflict over care. Behav Ecol 2015. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arv230] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
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10
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Bowers EK, Nietz D, Thompson CF, Sakaluk SK. Parental provisioning in house wrens: effects of varying brood size and consequences for offspring. Behav Ecol 2014. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/aru153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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11
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Offspring sex ratio varies with clutch size for female house wrens induced to lay supernumerary eggs. Behav Ecol 2013. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/art100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
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12
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Bowers EK, Munclinger P, Bureš S, Kučerová L, Nádvorník P, Krist M. Cross-fostering eggs reveals that female collared flycatchers adjust clutch sex ratios according to parental ability to invest in offspring. Mol Ecol 2012; 22:215-28. [PMID: 23116299 DOI: 10.1111/mec.12106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2012] [Revised: 09/20/2012] [Accepted: 10/02/2012] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Across animal taxa, reproductive success is generally more variable and more strongly dependent upon body condition for males than for females; in such cases, parents able to produce offspring in above-average condition are predicted to produce sons, whereas parents unable to produce offspring in good condition should produce daughters. We tested this hypothesis in the collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis) by cross-fostering eggs among nests and using the condition of foster young that parents raised to fledging as a functional measure of their ability to produce fit offspring. As predicted, females raising heavier-than-average foster fledglings with their social mate initially produced male-biased primary sex ratios, whereas those raising lighter-than-average foster fledglings produced female-biased primary sex ratios. Females also produced male-biased clutches when mated to males with large secondary sexual characters (wing patches), and tended to produce male-biased clutches earlier within breeding seasons relative to females breeding later. However, females did not adjust the sex of individuals within their clutches; sex was distributed randomly with respect to egg size, laying order and paternity. Future research investigating the proximate mechanisms linking ecological contexts and the quality of offspring parents are able to produce with primary sex-ratio variation could provide fundamental insight into the evolution of context-dependent sex-ratio adjustment.
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Affiliation(s)
- E Keith Bowers
- Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Section, School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA
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13
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Krist M, Munclinger P. Superiority of extra-pair offspring: maternal but not genetic effects as revealed by a mixed cross-fostering design. Mol Ecol 2011; 20:5074-91. [PMID: 22061105 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294x.2011.05337.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Extra-pair copulations (EPC) are the rule rather than an exception in socially monogamous birds, but despite widespread occurrences, the benefits of female infidelity remain elusive. Most attention has been paid to the possibility that females gain genetic benefits from EPC, and fitness comparisons between maternal half-siblings are considered to be a defining test of this hypothesis. Recently, it was shown that these comparisons may be confounded by within-brood maternal effects where one such effect may be the distribution of half-siblings in the laying order. However, this possibility is difficult to study as it would be necessary to detect the egg from which each chick hatched. In this study, we used a new approach for egg-chick assignment and cross-fostered eggs on an individual basis among a set of nests of the collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis. After hatching, chicks were ascribed to mothers and therefore to individual eggs by molecular genetic methods. Extra-pair young predominated early in the laying order. Under natural conditions, this should give them a competitive advantage over their half-siblings, mediated by hatching asynchrony. However, we experimentally synchronized hatching, and after this treatment, extra-pair young did not outperform within-pair young in any studied trait including survival up to recruitment and several indicators of reproductive success and attractiveness. We obtained only modest sample sizes for the last two traits and did not test for extra-pair success of male offspring. Thus, we cannot exclude the possibility of advantages of extra-pair young during the adult phase of life. However, our data tentatively suggest that the more likely reason for females' EPCs is the insurance against the infertility of a social mate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miloš Krist
- Museum of Natural History, nám. Republiky 5, 771 73 Olomouc, Czech Republic.
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14
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Horváthová T, Nakagawa S, Uller T. Strategic female reproductive investment in response to male attractiveness in birds. Proc Biol Sci 2011; 279:163-70. [PMID: 21632630 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2011.0663] [Citation(s) in RCA: 122] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Life-history theory predicts that individuals should adjust their reproductive effort according to the expected fitness returns on investment. Because sexually selected male traits should provide honest information about male genetic or phenotypic quality, females may invest more when paired with attractive males. However, there is substantial disagreement in the literature whether such differential allocation is a general pattern. Using a comparative meta-regression approach, we show that female birds generally invest more into reproduction when paired with attractive males, both in terms of egg size and number as well as food provisioning. However, whereas females of species with bi-parental care tend to primarily increase the number of eggs when paired with attractive males, females of species with female-only care produce larger, but not more, eggs. These patterns may reflect adaptive differences in female allocation strategies arising from variation in the signal content of sexually selected male traits between systems of parental care. In contrast to reproductive effort, female allocation of immune-stimulants, anti-oxidants and androgens to the egg yolk was not consistently increased when mated to attractive males, which probably reflects the context-dependent costs and benefits of those yolk compounds to females and offspring.
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Affiliation(s)
- Terézia Horváthová
- Department of Zoology, Edward Grey Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
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15
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Canestrari D, Marcos JM, Baglione V. Helpers at the nest compensate for reduced maternal investment in egg size in carrion crows. J Evol Biol 2011; 24:1870-8. [PMID: 21605220 DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02313.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Life history theory predicts that mothers should trade off current and future reproductive attempts to maximize lifetime fitness. When breeding conditions are favourable, mothers may either increase investment in the eggs to improve the quality of the offspring or save resources for future reproduction as the good raising environment is likely to compensate for a 'bad start'. In cooperatively breeding birds, the presence of helpers improves breeding conditions so that mothers may vary the number, size and quality of the eggs in response to the composition of the group. Here, we show that in cooperatively breeding carrion crows Corvus corone corone, where nonbreeding males are more philopatric and more helpful at the nest than females, breeding females decreased egg size as the number of subordinate males in the group increased. However, despite the smaller investment in egg size, fledglings' weight increased in groups with more male subordinates, improving post-fledging survival and indicating that helpers fully compensated for the initial 'bad start'. These results highlight a 'hidden effect' of helpers that bears profound implications for understanding the ultimate function of helping.
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Affiliation(s)
- D Canestrari
- Department of Agro-forestry, University of Valladolid, Palencia, Spain.
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16
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LOVE OP, WILLIAMS TD. Manipulating developmental stress reveals sex-specific effects of egg size on offspring phenotype. J Evol Biol 2011; 24:1497-504. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02282.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
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17
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Hegyi G, Rosivall B, Szöllősi E, Eens M, Török J. Context-dependent effects of nestling growth trajectories on recruitment probability in the collared flycatcher. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2011. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-011-1175-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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18
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Cucco M, Pellegrino I, Malacarne G. Immune challenge affects female condition and egg size in the grey partridge. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2011; 313:597-604. [PMID: 20665708 DOI: 10.1002/jez.635] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
As maintenance of the immune system is energetically costly and resource-limited, trade-offs among immune function, body condition, and reproductive allocation are expected. In this study, we experimentally test the possible trade-off between immune response, self maintenance, and reproductive output in breeding grey partridges Perdix perdix. Before laying, half the females were immune challenged with a novel antigen vaccine (Newcastle disease virus, NDV). The challenged females showed a higher erythrosedimentation rate, a serum parameter related to worsened health conditions, but their cell-mediated immune reaction (PHA test) did not differ from that of controls. The NDV-treated females laid smaller eggs (mass, length, and breadth), while the concentrations of antibacterial substances (lysozyme and avidin, two enzymes that confer innate antibacterial immunity) were unrelated to the hen's immune challenge. Our study suggests that an immune challenge can have physiological consequences in terms of self-maintenance and reproductive allocation to the egg.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Cucco
- University of Piemonte Orientale, DiSAV, Alessandria, Italy.
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19
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Affiliation(s)
- Miloš Krist
- Museum of Natural History, nám. Republiky 5, 771 73 Olomouc, Czech Republic.
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20
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Saino N, Romano M, Caprioli M, Ambrosini R, Rubolini D, Fasola M. Sex allocation in yellow-legged gulls (Larus michahellis) depends on nutritional constraints on production of large last eggs. Proc Biol Sci 2009; 277:1203-8. [PMID: 20007178 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.2012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Male and female offspring can differ in their susceptibility to pre-natal (e.g. egg quality) and post-natal (e.g. sib-sib competition) conditions, and parents can therefore increase their individual fitness by adjusting these maternal effects according to offspring sex. In birds, egg mass and laying/hatching order are the main determinants of offspring viability, but these effects can act differently on each sex. In a previous study, relatively large last-laid (c-)eggs of yellow-legged gulls (Larus michahellis) were more likely to carry a female embryo. This suggests compensatory allocation of maternal resources to daughters from c-eggs, which suffer reduced viability. In the present study, we supplemented yellow-legged gulls with food during the laying period to experimentally test whether their nutritional conditions were responsible for the observed covariation between c-egg sex and mass. As predicted, food supplementation enhanced female c-eggs' mass more than that of male c-eggs. Thus, this experiment indicates that mothers strategically allocated their resources to c-eggs, possibly in order to compensate for the larger susceptibility of daughters to hatching (and laying) order. The results also suggested that mothers decided on resource allocation depending on the sex of already ovulated c-eggs, rather than ovulating ova of either sex depending on food availability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola Saino
- Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria 26, I-20133 Milano, Italy.
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