| 1. |
- Andersson, Malte, 1941, et al.
(författare)
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Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Nest: Spread Them and Cut Time at Risk
- 2012
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Ingår i: American Naturalist. - : University of Chicago Press. - 0003-0147 .- 1537-5323. ; 180:3, s. 354-363
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In many egg-laying animals, some females spread their clutch among several nests. The fitness effects of this reproductive tactic are obscure. Using mathematical modeling and field observations, we analyze an unexplored benefit of egg spreading in brood parasitic and other breeding systems: reduced time at risk for offspring. If a clutch takes many days to lay until incubation and embryo development starts after the last egg, by spreading her eggs a parasitic female can reduce offspring time in the vulnerable nest at risk of predation or other destruction. The model suggests that she can achieve much of this benefit by spreading her eggs among a few nests, even if her total clutch is large. Field data from goldeneye ducks Bucephala clangula show that egg spreading enables a fecund female to lay a clutch that is much larger than average without increasing offspring time at risk in a nest. This advantage increases with female condition (fecundity) and can markedly raise female reproductive success. These results help explain the puzzle of nesting parasites in some precocial birds, which lay eggs in the nests of other females before laying eggs in their own nest. Risk reduction by egg spreading may also play a role in the evolution of other breeding systems and taxa-for instance, polyandry with male parental care in some birds and fishes.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Malte, 1941
(författare)
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Helping Relatives Survive and Reproduce: Inclusive Fitness and Reproductive Value in Brood Parasitism
- 2017
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Ingår i: American Naturalist. - : University of Chicago Press. - 0003-0147 .- 1537-5323. ; 189:2, s. 138-152
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Costly help can raise a relative's reproduction, survival, and reproductive value and increase the inclusive fitness of the donor of help. Donor fitness is explored here in conspecific brood parasitism. In this alternative reproductive tactic, some females, "parasites," lay eggs in nests of other females of the same species, "hosts," suppliers of help that alone take care of the offspring. Modeling shows that hosts can gain inclusive fitness if parasitized by relatives whose reproduction or survival is thereby increased. These predictions are explored in waterfowl with frequent brood parasitism, female-biased philopatry, and neighbor relatedness. Approximate estimates based on waterfowl reproductive and life-history data show that host inclusive-fitness gain is often possible with related parasites. The largest gains can be achieved through increased reproduction, but gain is also possible through higher survival of parasites that avoid increased predation and other risks of nesting. Inclusive fitness depends on parasite reproductive value and can be highest for a host parasitized by her mother and for old, senescent hosts with low fecundity, helping young related parasites. These results and observed levels of host-parasite relatedness suggest that being "parasitized" in waterfowl is sometimes neutral or even advantageous because of inclusive-fitness benefits, contributing to evolution of frequent conspecific brood parasitism in this group.
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| 3. |
- Andersson, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Multiple-Strain Infections of Borrelia afzelii: A Role for Within-Host Interactions in the Maintenance of Antigenic Diversity?
- 2013
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Ingår i: American Naturalist. - : University of Chicago Press. - 0003-0147 .- 1537-5323. ; 181:4, s. 545-554
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Genetically diverse infections are common but little is known about what effects coinfecting strains have on each other in natural host-parasite systems. To explore the nature and consequences of interactions in the wild, we studied the tick-transmitted bacterium Borrelia afzelii in one of its main reservoir hosts, the bank vole Myodes glareolus. We measured overall infection intensity with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and resolved the composition of multiple infections using strain-specific PCR assays targeting the ospC gene (which encodes an immunodominant surface protein). We found seven different strains, as defined by ospC genotype. There was little evidence for interactions affecting infection intensities, but strains were highly aggregated (i.e., there were more multiple infections than expected from random co-occurrence). Moreover, there was a positive correlation between the difference at the amino acid level between two OspC types and their degree of association. Overall, the observed patterns suggest that facilitation is more important than competition in this system and that more diverse infections have an advantage in establishing and/or maintaining infection. We propose that this advantage is one of the factors that favors antigenic diversity.
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| 4. |
- Andersson, Staffan, 1959, et al.
(författare)
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Multiple receivers, multiple ornaments, and a trade-off between agonistic and epigamic signaling in a widowbird.
- 2002
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Ingår i: The American naturalist. - : University of Chicago Press. - 1537-5323 .- 0003-0147. ; 160:5, s. 683-91
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sexual displays often involve several different ornamental traits. Yet most indicator models of sexual selection based on a single receiver (usually a choosy female) find that multiple handicap signals should be unstable. Here we study reasons for this contradiction, analyzing signal function, signal content, and trade-offs between signals in the polygynous red-collared widowbird Euplectes ardens. Males have both a long, graduated tail and a red carotenoid collar badge. Territory-holding "residents" have slightly shorter tails than the nonbreeding "floaters," but their carotenoid collars are 40% larger, and they have (on the basis of reflectance spectrometry and objective colorimetry) a 23-nm more long-wave ("redder") hue than floaters. This corroborates experimental evidence that the red collar is selected by male contest competition, whereas female choice is based almost exclusively on male tail length. Tail length is negatively correlated with the carotenoid signal, which together with body size and condition explains 55% of the variation in tail length. The trade-off in tail length and carotenoid investment is steeper among residents, suggesting an interaction with costs of territory defense. We propose that the "multiple receiver hypothesis" can explain the coexistence of multiple handicap signals. Furthermore, the trade-off between signal expressions might contribute to the inverse relation between nuptial tail elongation and coloration in the genus Euplectes (bishops and widowbirds).
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| 8. |
- Attwell, Joanna R., et al.
(författare)
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Fish avoid visually noisy environments where prey targeting is reduced
- 2021
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Ingår i: American Naturalist. - : University of Chicago Press. - 0003-0147 .- 1537-5323. ; 198:3, s. 421-432
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The environment contains different forms of ecological noise that can reduce the ability of animals to detect information. Here, we ask whether animals adapt their behavior to either exploit or avoid areas of their environment with increased dynamic visual noise. Threespined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) were immersed in environments with a simulated formof naturally occurring visual noise— moving light bands that formon underwater substrates caused by the refraction of light through surface waves. We tested whether this form of visual noise affected fish’s habitat selection, movements, and preytargeting behavior. Fish avoided areas of the environment with increased visual noise and achieved this by increasing their activity as a function of the locally perceived noise level. Fish were less likely to respond to virtual prey in environments with increased visual noise, highlighting a potential impact that visual noise has on their perceptual abilities. Fish did not increase or decrease their refuge use in environments with increased visual noise, providing no evidence that visual noise increased either exploratory or risk-aversive behavior. Our results indicate that animals can use simple behavioral strategies to avoid visually noisy environments, thereby mitigating the impacts that these environments appear to have on their perceptual abilities.
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| 9. |
- Aunapuu, Maano, et al.
(författare)
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Spatial patterns and dynamic responses of arctic food webs corroborate the exploitation ecosystems hypothesis (EEH)
- 2008
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Ingår i: American Naturalist. - : University of Chicago Press. - 0003-0147 .- 1537-5323. ; 171:2, s. 249-262
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- According to the exploitation ecosystems hypothesis (EEH), productive terrestrial ecosystems are characterized by community‐level trophic cascades, whereas unproductive ecosystems harbor food‐limited grazers, which regulate community‐level plant biomass. We tested this hypothesis along arctic‐alpine productivity gradients at the Joatka field base, Finnmark, Norway. In unproductive habitats, mammalian predators were absent and plant biomass was constant, whereas herbivore biomass varied, reflecting the productivity of the habitat. In productive habitats, predatory mammals were persistently present and plant biomass varied in space, but herbivore biomass did not. Plant biomass of productive tundra scrublands declined by 40% when vegetation blocks were transferred to predation‐free islands. Corresponding transfer to herbivore‐free islands triggered an increase in plant biomass. Fertilization of an unproductive tundra heath resulted in a fourfold increase in rodent density and a corresponding increase in winter grazing activity, whereas the total aboveground plant biomass remained unchanged. These results corroborate the predictions of the EEH, implying that the endotherm community and the vegetation of the North European tundra behaves dynamically as if each trophic level consisted of a single population, in spite of local co‐occurrence of >20 plant species representing different major taxonomic groups, growth forms, and defensive strategies.
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| 10. |
- Bachmann, Judith C., et al.
(författare)
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Gene Flow Limits Adaptation along Steep Environmental Gradients
- 2020
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Ingår i: American Naturalist. - : UNIV CHICAGO PRESS. - 0003-0147 .- 1537-5323. ; 195:3, s. E67-E86
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When environmental variation is spatially continuous, dispersing individuals move among nearby sites with similar habitat conditions. But as an environmental gradient becomes steeper, gene flow may connect more divergent habitats, and this is predicted to reduce the slope of the adaptive dine that evolves. We compared quantitative genetic divergence of Rana temporaria frog populations along a 2,000-m elevational gradient in eastern Switzerland (new experimental results) with divergence along a 1,550-km latitudinal gradient in Fennoscandia (previously published results). Both studies found significant countergradient variation in larval development rate (i.e., animals from cold climates developed more rapidly). The dine was weaker with elevation than with latitude. Animals collected on both gradients were genotyped at similar to 2,000 singlenucleotide polymorphism markers, revealing that dispersal distance was 30% farther on the latitudinal gradient but 3.9 times greater with respect to environmental conditions on the elevational gradient. A meta-analysis of 19 experimental studies of anuran populations spanning temperature gradients revealed that countergradient variation in larval development, while significant overal I, was weaker when measured on steeper gradients. These findings support the prediction that adaptive population divergence is less pronounced, and maladaptation more pervasive, on steep environmental gradients.
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