Publications
78 results found
Eberhart-Hertel LJ, Rodrigues LF, Krietsch J, et al., 2023, Egg size variation in the context of polyandry: a case study using long-term field data from snowy plovers., Evolution, Vol: 77, Pages: 2590-2605
Gamete size variation between the sexes is central to the concept of sex roles, however, to what extent gamete size variation within the sexes relates to sex role variation remains unclear. Comparative and theoretical studies suggest that, when clutch size is invariable, polyandry is linked to a reduction of egg size, while increased female-female competition for mates favors early breeding when females cannot monopolize multiple males. To understand whether and how breeding phenology, egg size, and mating behavior are related at the individual level, we studied the reproductive histories of 424 snowy plover females observed in the wild over a 15-year period. Egg size, but not polyandry, were highly repeatable for individual females. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we found that polyandrous females were the earliest breeders and that early clutches contained smaller eggs than clutches initiated later. Neither egg size nor mating behavior showed clear signs of an age-related deterioration, on the contrary, prior experience acquired either through age or local recruitment enabled females to nest early. Taken together, these results suggest that gamete size variation is not linked to mating behavior at the individual level, and, consequently, the adaptive potential of such variation appears to be limited.
Dobson S, Dunning J, Burke T, et al., 2023, Indirect genetic effects increase heritability estimates for male and female extra-pair reproduction, EVOLUTION, Vol: 77, Pages: 1893-1901, ISSN: 0014-3820
Gkourtsouli-Antoniadou I, Ewing SRR, Hudson G, et al., 2023, Age-specific survival in an English Twite <i>Linaria flavirostris</i> population, BIRD STUDY, Vol: 70, Pages: 59-63, ISSN: 0006-3657
Dunning J, Burke T, Chan AHH, et al., 2023, Opposite-sex associations are linked with annual fitness, but sociality is stable over lifetime, BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY, ISSN: 1045-2249
Sun Y, Dunning J, Taylor T, et al., 2023, Calls of Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus contain individual signatures, Journal of Avian Biology, ISSN: 0908-8857
Vocalisations are widely used to signal behavioural intention in animal communication, but may also carry acoustic signatures unique to the calling individual. Here, we used acoustic analysis to confirm that Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus calls carry individual signatures, and discerned which features made the calls individual. Manx shearwater are nocturnal seabirds that breed in dense colonies, where they must recognize and locate mates among thousands of conspecifics calling in the dark. There is evidence for mate vocal recognition in two shearwater species, but quantitative data on the vocalisations are lacking. We elicited vocal responses to playback of conspecific calls in Manx shearwaters, and measured spectral and temporal parameters of the calls. We then applied linear discriminant analysis with leave-one-out cross-validation and could confirm the presence of individual vocal signatures. We then calculated among-individual repeatability of 34 features describing the vocalisation to determine the extent to which these features may contribute to individual signature coding. We found that calls cluster by individual in both temporal and spectral characteristics, suggesting these traits are contributing to Manx shearwaters' unique call signatures.
Chik HYJ, Sparks AM, Schroeder J, et al., 2022, A meta-analysis on the heritability of vertebrate telomere length, JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Vol: 35, Pages: 1283-1295, ISSN: 1010-061X
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- Citations: 7
Bennett S, Girndt A, Sanchez-Tojar A, et al., 2022, Evidence of Paternal Effects on Telomere Length Increases in Early Life, FRONTIERS IN GENETICS, Vol: 13
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- Citations: 2
Alif Ž, Dunning J, Chik HYJ, et al., 2022, What is the best fitness measure in wild populations? A case study on the power of short-term fitness proxies to predict reproductive value, PLoS One, Vol: 17, ISSN: 1932-6203
Fitness is at the core of evolutionary theory, but it is difficult to measure accurately. One way to measure long-term fitness is by calculating the individual's reproductive value, which represents the expected number of allele copies an individual passes on to distant future generations. However, this metric of fitness is scarcely used because the estimation of individual's reproductive value requires long-term pedigree data, which is rarely available in wild populations where following individuals from birth to death is often impossible. Wild study systems therefore use short-term fitness metrics as proxies, such as the number of offspring produced. This study compared two frequently used short-term metrics for fitness obtained at different offspring life stages (eggs, hatchlings, fledglings and recruits), and compared their ability to predict reproductive values derived from the genetic pedigree of a wild passerine bird population. We used twenty years of precise field observations and a near-complete genetic pedigree to calculate reproductive success, individual growth rate and de-lifed fitness as lifetime fitness measures, and as annual de-lifed fitness. We compared the power of these metrics to predict reproductive values and lineage survival to the end of the study period. The three short-term fitness proxies predict the reproductive values and lineage survival only when measured at the recruit stage. There were no significant differences between the different fitness proxies at the same offspring stages in predicting the reproductive values and lineage survival. Annual fitness at one year old predicted reproductive values equally well as lifetime de-lifed fitness. However, none of the short-term fitness proxies were strongly associated with the reproductive values. The commonly used short-term fitness proxies best predict long-term fitness when measured at recruitment stage. Thus, because lifetime fitness measured at recruit stage and annual fitness in the
Chan AHH, Qi L, Burke T, et al., 2022, Machine learning pipeline extracts biologically significant data automatically from avian monitoring videos
Chik HYJ, Estrada C, Wang Y, et al., 2022, Individual variation in reaction norms but no directional selection in reproductive plasticity of a wild passerine population, ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, Vol: 12, ISSN: 2045-7758
Culina A, Adriaensen F, Bailey LD, et al., 2021, Connecting the data landscape of long-term ecological studies: The SPI-Birds data hub., Journal of Animal Ecology, Vol: 90, Pages: 2147-2160, ISSN: 0021-8790
The integration and synthesis of the data in different areas of science is drastically slowed and hindered by a lack of standards and networking programmes. Long-term studies of individually marked animals are not an exception. These studies are especially important as instrumental for understanding evolutionary and ecological processes in the wild. Furthermore, their number and global distribution provides a unique opportunity to assess the generality of patterns and to address broad-scale global issues (e.g. climate change). To solve data integration issues and enable a new scale of ecological and evolutionary research based on long-term studies of birds, we have created the SPI-Birds Network and Database (www.spibirds.org)-a large-scale initiative that connects data from, and researchers working on, studies of wild populations of individually recognizable (usually ringed) birds. Within year and a half since the establishment, SPI-Birds has recruited over 120 members, and currently hosts data on almost 1.5 million individual birds collected in 80 populations over 2,000 cumulative years, and counting. SPI-Birds acts as a data hub and a catalogue of studied populations. It prevents data loss, secures easy data finding, use and integration and thus facilitates collaboration and synthesis. We provide community-derived data and meta-data standards and improve data integrity guided by the principles of Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR), and aligned with the existing metadata languages (e.g. ecological meta-data language). The encouraging community involvement stems from SPI-Bird's decentralized approach: research groups retain full control over data use and their way of data management, while SPI-Birds creates tailored pipelines to convert each unique data format into a standard format. We outline the lessons learned, so that other communities (e.g. those working on other taxa) can adapt our successful model. Creating community-specific hubs (such
Eberhart-Hertel LJ, Rodrigues LF, Krietsch J, et al., 2021, Egg size variation in a long-lived polyandrous shorebird in the context of senescence and breeding phenology
<jats:p>We have withdrawn this manuscript due to a duplicate posting of manuscript number 240150. Therefore, we do not wish this work to be cited as reference for the project. If you have any questions, please contact Luke J. Eberhart-Hertel at<jats:email>luke.eberhart@orn.mpg.de</jats:email></jats:p>
Bennett S, Girndt A, Sánchez-Tójar A, et al., 2021, Evidence of paternal effects on telomere length increases in early-life
de Villemereuil P, Charmantier A, Arlt D, et al., 2020, Fluctuating optimum and temporally variable selection on breeding date in birds and mammals., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA, Vol: 117, Pages: 31969-31978, ISSN: 0027-8424
Temporal variation in natural selection is predicted to strongly impact the evolution and demography of natural populations, with consequences for the rate of adaptation, evolution of plasticity, and extinction risk. Most of the theory underlying these predictions assumes a moving optimum phenotype, with predictions expressed in terms of the temporal variance and autocorrelation of this optimum. However, empirical studies seldom estimate patterns of fluctuations of an optimum phenotype, precluding further progress in connecting theory with observations. To bridge this gap, we assess the evidence for temporal variation in selection on breeding date by modeling a fitness function with a fluctuating optimum, across 39 populations of 21 wild animals, one of the largest compilations of long-term datasets with individual measurements of trait and fitness components. We find compelling evidence for fluctuations in the fitness function, causing temporal variation in the magnitude, but not the direction of selection. However, fluctuations of the optimum phenotype need not directly translate into variation in selection gradients, because their impact can be buffered by partial tracking of the optimum by the mean phenotype. Analyzing individuals that reproduce in consecutive years, we find that plastic changes track movements of the optimum phenotype across years, especially in bird species, reducing temporal variation in directional selection. This suggests that phenological plasticity has evolved to cope with fluctuations in the optimum, despite their currently modest contribution to variation in selection.
Plaza M, Burke T, Cox T, et al., 2020, Repeatable social network node-based metrics across populations and contexts in a passerine, JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Vol: 33, Pages: 1634-1642, ISSN: 1010-061X
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- Citations: 5
Valdebenito JO, Martinez-de la Puente J, Castro M, et al., 2020, Association of insularity and body condition to cloacal bacteria prevalence in a small shorebird, PLoS One, Vol: 15, Pages: 1-16, ISSN: 1932-6203
Do islands harbour less diverse disease communities than mainland? The island biogeography theory predicts more diverse communities on mainland than on islands due to more niches, more diverse habitats and availability of greater range of hosts. We compared bacteria prevalences of Campylobacter, Chlamydia and Salmonella in cloacal samples of a small shorebird, the Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) between two island populations of Macaronesia and two mainland locations in the Iberian Peninsula. Bacteria were found in all populations but, contrary to the expectations, prevalences did not differ between islands and mainland. Females had higher prevalences than males for Salmonella and when three bacteria genera were pooled together. Bacteria infection was unrelated to bird’s body condition but females from mainland were heavier than males and birds from mainland were heavier than those from islands. Abiotic variables consistent throughout breeding sites, like high salinity that is known to inhibit bacteria growth, could explain the lack of differences in the bacteria prevalence between areas. We argue about the possible drivers and implications of sex differences in bacteria prevalence in Kentish plovers.
Eberhart-Hertel LJ, Falcão Rodrigues L, Krietsch J, et al., 2020, Egg size variation in the context of polyandry: a case study using long-term field data from snowy plovers
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Gamete size variation<jats:italic>between</jats:italic>the sexes is central to the concept of sex roles, however, to what extent gamete size variation<jats:italic>within</jats:italic>the sexes relates to sex role variation remains unclear. Comparative and theoretical studies suggest that, when clutch size is invariable, polyandry is linked to a reduction of egg size, while increased female-female competition for mates favors early breeding when females cannot monopolize multiple males. To understand whether and how breeding phenology, egg size, and mating behavior are related at the individual level, we studied the reproductive histories of 424 snowy plover females observed in the wild over a 15-year period. Egg size, but not polyandry, were highly repeatable for individual females. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we found that polyandrous females were the earliest breeders and that early clutches contained smaller eggs than clutches initiated later. Neither egg size nor mating behavior showed clear signs of an age-related deterioration, on the contrary, prior experience acquired either through age or local recruitment enabled females to nest early. Taken together, these results suggest that gamete size variation is not linked to mating behavior at the individual level, and, consequently, the adaptive potential of such variation appears to be limited.</jats:p><jats:sec><jats:title>Teaser Text</jats:title><jats:p>Comparative avian analyses have linked female polyandry and sex-role reversal to the production of smaller eggs: the notion being that smaller eggs allow polyandrous females to lay multiple sequential clutches quickly. Our research, however, has found that the notion is more complex at the individual level. We found that females who started breeding early in the season were more likely to be polyandrous and produce smaller eggs. Experienc
Van Lieshout SHJ, Froy H, Schroeder J, et al., 2020, Slicing: A sustainable approach to structuring samples for analysis in long-term studies, METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, Vol: 11, Pages: 418-430, ISSN: 2041-210X
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- Citations: 3
Girndt A, Cockburn G, Sanchez-Tojar A, et al., 2019, Male age and its association with reproductive traits in captive and wild house sparrows, JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Vol: 32, Pages: 1432-1443, ISSN: 1010-061X
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- Citations: 15
Chik HYJ, Estrada C, Wang Y, et al., 2019, Selection on reproductive plasticity in a wild population of blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus
Ihle M, Pick JL, Winney IS, et al., 2019, Rearing success does not improve with apparent pair coordination in offspring provisioning, Frontiers in Ecology Evolution, Vol: 7, Pages: 1-9, ISSN: 2296-701X
In species with biparental care, behavioral coordination in the provisioning of the progeny is hypothesized to increase the number of offspring that survive to independence. Coordination is often quantified by two metrics, alternation and synchrony. Turn-taking (leading to an alternation pattern) can result when one parent's investment strategy is based on the investment of its partner (i.e., conditional cooperation). This should increase the overall provisioning rate and improve offspring body condition. Synchrony might equalize food delivery among offspring and therefore decrease the variance in offspring body condition within the brood. Overall, offspring survival could be increased by parental coordination. Finally, pairs with low coordination, and with potentially lower reproductive success, are expected to be more likely to divorce. In this study, we use a dataset on 473 pairs of house sparrows in a natural insular population to test these hypotheses. We found no effect of the pair's apparent coordination on offspring condition, offspring survival, or divorce rate, questioning the adaptive significance of this behavior. We argue that, in this species, the detection of a higher frequency of alternation and synchrony, when compared to chance expectation, might be induced by the environment, rather than result from an emergent pair behavior selected for fitness benefits.
Lattore M, Nakagawa S, Burke T, et al., 2019, No evidence for kin recognition in a passerine bird, PLOS ONE, Vol: 14, ISSN: 1932-6203
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- Citations: 4
Ralph A, Burke T, Nakagawa S, et al., 2019, The causes and consequences of ornament variation in a natural population
Vargas-Pellicer P, Watrobska C, Knowles S, et al., 2019, How should we store avian faecal samples for microbiota analyses? Comparing efficacy and cost-effectiveness, JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGICAL METHODS, Vol: 165, ISSN: 0167-7012
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- Citations: 3
Girndt A, Cockburn G, Sánchez-Tójar A, et al., 2019, Male age and its association with reproductive traits in captive and wild house sparrows
Pipoly I, Szabo K, Bokony V, et al., 2019, Higher Frequency of Extra-Pair Offspring in Urban Than Forest Broods of Great Tits (<i>Parus major</i>), FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, Vol: 7, ISSN: 2296-701X
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- Citations: 7
Bethell E, Kemp C, Thatcher H, et al., 2019, Heritability and maternal effects on social attention during an attention bias task in a non-human primate, Macaca mulatta
Schroeder J, Redfern C, Boothbu C, 2019, An evaluation of canes as management technique to reduce predation by gulls on ground nesting seabirds, Ibis, Vol: 161, Pages: 453-458, ISSN: 0019-1019
The best documented method to decrease predation of breeding seabirds by gulls are culling regimes; however, studies on the effectiveness of this method show ambiguous results. Here we tested an alternative method, using bamboo canes erected in four breeding sites of Arctic Tern Sterna paradisaea as a gull‐deterrent. Although we found fewer predation attempts in the caned areas than in the control areas, canes did not reduce the probability of predation success per attempt. This pilot study documents that the use of canes as a conservation strategy to reduce gull predation is promising, economic and simple, and is thus probably a versatile tool for conservation managers.
Matsushima W, Brink K, Schroeder J, et al., 2019, Mature sperm small-RNA profile in the sparrow: implications for transgenerational effects of age on fitness, ENVIRONMENTAL EPIGENETICS, Vol: 5, ISSN: 2058-5888
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- Citations: 6
Bouillard N, White R, Jackson H, et al., 2019, Seeing rare birds where there are none: self-rated expertise predicts correct species identification, but also more false rarities
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