| 1. |
- Arct, Aneta, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of elevated nest box temperature on incubation behaviour and offspring fitness-related traits in the Collared Flycatcher Ficedula albicollis
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Ornithology. - : Springer Nature. - 2193-7192 .- 2193-7206. ; 163, s. 263-272
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ambient temperature experienced by an animal during development or subsequently as an adult can affect many aspects of its behaviour and life-history traits. In birds, egg incubation is a vital component of reproduction and parental care. Several studies have suggested that environmental factors (such as nest microclimate) can influence the ability of incubating parents to maintain suitable conditions for embryo development. Here, we manipulated the developmental conditions of embryos through a modification of nest box thermal microclimate to investigate female incubation behaviour and its impact on offspring fitness-related traits in a wild population of the Collared Flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis). The temperature in experimental nests was increased using a heat-pack placed under the roof of a nest box, resulting in an average temperature increase of 2.5 degrees C, which corresponds to projected climate change scenarios. We demonstrated that females from nests with elevated temperature spent less time in the nest box during egg incubation and had more off-bouts than females from control nests. Moreover, we found that offspring from the experimentally heated nests had larger body mass at fledging in comparison to the control ones. Our study indicates that nest microclimate during the incubation period affects female incubation behaviour and offspring quality, indicating that environmental variation in nest temperature early in ontogeny can have important and long-lasting fitness consequences.
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| 2. |
- Arct, Aneta, et al.
(författare)
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The interactive effect of ambient temperature and brood size manipulation on nestling body mass in blue tits : an exploratory analysis of a long-term study
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Zoology. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1742-9994. ; 19:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Relatively few studies have examined the interactive effects of ecological factors on physiological responses in wild animals. Nearly all of them have been short-term investigations that did not include experimental manipulations, limiting our ability to understand how climate change will affect natural populations. Using a 10-year brood size manipulation experiment in wild blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), we quantified the impact of weather conditions and brood competition on the body mass and structural size (tarsus length) of nestlings just prior to leaving the nest. Results We found that variation in nestling body mass on day 14 after hatching was explained by an interactive effect between average ambient temperature experienced during nestling period and brood size treatment. Specifically, in control broods nestling body mass was correlated with temperature in a non-linear manner (concave) with the vertex point (maximum body mass) at ca. 13 degrees C. In contrast, in enlarged broods nestling body mass permanently increased (also non-linearly) as temperature advanced. Conclusions Our results highlight the importance of considering the effects of brood rearing conditions alongside other environmental factors experienced during growth while investigating early-life environmental effects on body condition.
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| 3. |
- Bailey, Liam D., et al.
(författare)
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Bird populations most exposed to climate change are less sensitive to climatic variation
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The phenology of many species shows strong sensitivity to climate change; however, with few large scale intra-specific studies it is unclear how such sensitivity varies over a species’ range. We document large intra-specific variation in phenological sensitivity to temperature using laying date information from 67 populations of two co-familial European songbirds, the great tit (Parus major) and blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), covering a large part of their breeding range. Populations inhabiting deciduous habitats showed stronger phenological sensitivity than those in evergreen and mixed habitats. However, populations with higher sensitivity tended to have experienced less rapid change in climate over the past decades, such that populations with high phenological sensitivity will not necessarily exhibit the strongest phenological advancement. Our results show that to effectively assess the impact of climate change on phenology across a species’ range it will be necessary to account for intra-specific variation in phenological sensitivity, climate change exposure, and the ecological characteristics of a population.
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| 4. |
- Culina, Antica, et al.
(författare)
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Connecting the data landscape of long-term ecological studies : The SPI-Birds data hub
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Animal Ecology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0021-8790 .- 1365-2656. ; 90:9, s. 2147-2160
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 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 ()-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 as ours, COMADRE for animal demography, etc.) will aid much-needed large-scale ecological data integration.
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| 5. |
- Drobniak, Szymon M., et al.
(författare)
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Low Cross-Sex Genetic Correlation in Carotenoid-Based Plumage Traits in the Blue Tit Nestlings (Cyanistes caeruleus)
- 2013
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 8:7, s. e69786-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In some bird species, both adult and juvenile individuals are often brightly coloured. It has been commonly assumed that identical plumage colouration present in both sexes results from strong intersexual genetic correlations in colour-related traits. Here, we aimed at testing this hypothesis in juvenile individuals and looked at genetic parameters describing carotenoid-based colouration of blue tit nestlings in a wild population. To separate genetic and environmental sources of phenotypic variation we performed a cross-fostering experiment. Our analyses confirmed the existence of sexual dichromatism in blue tit nestlings and revealed a significant, although low, genetic component of carotenoid-based colouration. However, genetic effects are expressed differently across sexes as indicated by low cross-sex genetic correlations (r(mf)). Thus our results do not support the prediction of generally high rmf and suggest that intersexual constraints on the evolution of colouration traits may be weaker than expected. We hypothesise that observed patterns of genetic correlations result from sex-specific selective pressures acting on nestling plumage colouration.
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| 6. |
- Drobniak, Szymon M., et al.
(författare)
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Maternal Age-Related Depletion of Offspring Genetic Variance in Immune Response to Phytohaemagglutinin in the Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)
- 2015
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Ingår i: Evolutionary biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0071-3260 .- 1934-2845. ; 42:1, s. 88-98
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Studies examining age-specific patterns in genetic variance have focussed primarily on changes in the genetic variance within cohorts. It remains unclear whether parental age may affect the genetic variance among offspring. To date, such an effect has been reported only in a single study performed in a wild bird population. Here, we provide experimental evidence that the additive genetic variance (V-A) observed among offspring may be related to parental age in a wild passerine-the blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus). To separate genetic and environmental components of phenotypic variance in nestling body size and immune function we cross-fostered nestlings between pairs of broods born to young and old mothers and used an animal model to estimate V-A. We show that the genetic variance in immune response to phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) and body weight among offspring depends on maternal age. V-A in response to PHA appeared to be lower among nestlings of older mothers. Such a tendency was not observed for tarsus length. We argue that the lower V-A may result either from depletion of additive genetic variation due to selection acting on parents across age classes or from environmental effects confounded with parental age. Thus, our study suggests that parental age may significantly affect estimates of quantitative genetic parameters in the offspring.
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| 7. |
- Dubiec, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Differential prevalence and diversity of haemosporidian parasites in two sympatric closely related nonmigratory passerines
- 2016
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Ingår i: Parasitology. - 0031-1820 .- 1469-8161. ; 143:10, s. 1320-1329
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Haemosporidian parasites infecting birds show distinct heterogeneity in their distribution among host species. However, despite numerous studies on the prevalence and diversity of parasite communities across species, very little is known on patterns of differences between them. Such data is lacking because up to date the majority of studies explored the patterns of variation in infections in different years, different time of sampling within a year or a breeding cycle, different study sites or was based on a small sample size, all of which may affect the estimates of prevalence and parasite diversity. Here, the prevalence, richness and diversity of haemosporidian parasites from the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus were studied in two closely related non-migratory hole-nesting passerines: Great Tits and Blue Tits. Birds were sampled in sympatrically breeding populations during two seasons at the same stage of their breeding cycle - late nestling care. Great Tits were more prevalently infected with Plasmodium and Haemoproteus parasites (97.1 vs 71.2%), harboured a higher proportion of multiple infections (26.2 vs 3.2%) and had a more diverse parasite community (11 vs 5 parasite lineages) than Blue Tits. Observed differences between two host species are discussed with reference to their breeding densities and immunological and behavioural characteristics.
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| 8. |
- Dubiec, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Intra-individual changes in haemosporidian infections over the nesting period in great tit females
- 2017
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Ingår i: Parasitology Research. - : Springer. - 0932-0113 .- 1432-1955. ; 116:9, s. 2385-2392
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Prevalence of haemosporidian parasites in bird populations varies temporally both between years and within a year. In contrast to variation at the population level, relatively little is known about variation in infection attributes at the individual level, especially in non-migratory species. We examined intra-individual changes in the presence and identity of haemosporidian parasites (genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) over the course of the nesting period in females of great tits (Parus major)-a species considered to be resident over much of its distribution range. Birds were sampled during two stages of the nesting period: nest building and nestling rearing. The mean time interval between sampling occasions was 43 days. Between the first and second samplings, 30.6% of females gained at least one parasite lineage and 18.5% lost the lineage. Haemoproteus gains were over three times more common than Plasmodium gains. The probability of the lineage gain decreased with the date of the first sampling, was higher in individuals in better body condition and differed between years, but was not associated with the host age. The probability of the lineage loss was not explained by any of the considered parameters except for year. These results indicate that in a large proportion of a population, infection attributes (presence/absence and/or parasite identity) may change over the nesting period and the occurrence of such changes may be associated with the individual quality. Consequently, this phenomenon should be taken into account to correctly interpret parasite-mediated effects.
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| 9. |
- Janas, Katarzyna, et al.
(författare)
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Carotenoid-based coloration correlates with the hatching date of Blue TitCyanistes caeruleusnestlings
- 2020
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Ingår i: Ibis. - : WILEY. - 0019-1019 .- 1474-919X. ; 162:3, s. 645-654
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Carotenoid-based coloration occurs predominantly in adult birds, yet in some species from the family Paridae, this trait is also present at the nestling stage. One of the factors proposed to affect the expression of this trait in immature birds is hatching date. Here, using the avian tetrahedral colour space model, we examined the influence of hatching date on the breast carotenoid-based plumage coloration of the Blue TitCyanistes caeruleusnestlings. Because Blue Tits are sexually dichromatic, we also investigated the potential interaction between hatching date and sex that could arise from differences in condition dependence of this trait between males and females. We found a positive relationship betweenUVchroma of breast feathers and hatching date. The amount ofUVreflectance is thought to be negatively related to carotenoid content in feathers. The observed increase ofUVchroma through the breeding season might therefore be caused by a seasonal decline in the availability and quality of Lepidoptera larvae - the main source of carotenoids in food of the Tits. We also observed a sex difference in the relationship between brightness of breast feathers (achromatic, structural component) and hatching date, which in males was negative and in females not significant. Our study provides further evidence that the timing of breeding is related to the expression of nestling carotenoid-based coloration, a potentially meaningful element of offspring-parent communication, and suggests a sex-specific effect of hatching date on its structural component.
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| 10. |
- Janas, Katarzyna, et al.
(författare)
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Influence of haemosporidian infection status on structural and carotenoid-based colouration in the blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Avian Biology. - : Wiley. - 0908-8857 .- 1600-048X. ; 49:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hypotheses postulating parasite-mediated mate choice intrinsically assume that parasitic infections deteriorate the quality of male ornamentation. Although this assumption has often been studied in the context of carotenoid-based colouration, only few studies investigated this with reference to structural feather colouration, which in many species plays a vital role in sexual selection. Here, using a three-years dataset from a wild blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus population, we examined the relationship between the haemosporidian infection status and the structural as well as the carotenoid-based colouration of adult birds. Furthermore, we investigated potential differences in the impact on feather colouration between two examined parasite genera: Plasmodium and Haemoproteus. For analysis of the feathers spectral reflectance we used both the tristimulus model and the avian tetrahedral colour space model, incorporating visual phenotype of the blue tit. Contrary to expectations we found that infected birds showed higher brightness, in both the structural and the carotenoid-based colours. We also found no differences in the feather colouration between birds infected with Plasmodium and Haemoproteus. Observed pattern might be best explained by the parasite-mediated selection hypothesis, as only individuals of superior quality should be able to survive the acute stage of infection and therefore they could produce more elaborate ornamental colouration.
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