Energy expenditure during egg laying is equal for early and late breeding free-living female great tits

Marvelde, Luc te; Webber, Simone L.; Meijer, H. A. J.; Visser, Marcel E.

doi:10.1007/s00442-011-2122-x

Cited by 20 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Ambient temperature influences daily energy expenditure during egg laying directly and indirectly by affecting thermoregulatory costs and foraging behaviour (Stevenson and Bryant 2000, te Marvelde et al 2012). Low temperature was repeatedly shown to correlate with smaller clutch sizes and/or smaller eggs in various wild bird species (Christians 2002), including the great tit (Nager and van Noordwijk 1992, Nager and Zandt 1994, Lessells et al 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Great tits provided with ad libitum food lay larger eggs when exposed to colder temperatures

Schaper¹,

Visser²

2013

Journal of Avian Biology

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The amount of nutrients deposited into a bird egg varies both between and within clutches of the same female. Larger eggs enhance offspring traits, but as a tradeoff, laying large eggs also infers energetic costs to the female. Income breeders usually lay larger eggs later in the season, when temperatures and food availability are higher. Egg size is thus affected by the daily amount of energy available to produce an egg under cold conditions, but it is less well known in how far temperature exerts direct effects on egg size. We show that great tit females Parus major with access to ad libitum food and breeding in climate‐controlled aviaries varied their egg investments. The size of an individual egg was best predicted by mean temperatures one week pre‐laying, with females laying larger, rather than smaller, eggs under colder conditions. Eggs increased in size over the season, but not significantly over the laying sequence. The degree of daily temperature fluctuation did not influence egg size. In addition to a substantial between‐female variation, sisters were more similar to each other than unrelated females, showing that egg size does also reflect heritable intrinsic female properties. Natural variation in egg size is thus not only determined by energy‐limitation, but also due to females allocating more resources to eggs laid in colder environments, thus increasing early survival of the chicks. That the positive correlation between temperature and egg investments that is found in a natural population is reversed under ad libitum food conditions demonstrates that wild great tits tradeoff own condition with survival prospects of their chicks as a function of available food, not ambient temperature.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Great tits provided with ad libitum food lay larger eggs when exposed to colder temperatures

Schaper¹,

Visser²

2013

Journal of Avian Biology

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“…For example, Monaghan, Nager & Houston (1998) have shown that female lesser black‐backed gulls ( Larus fuscus ) that had experimentally increased costs during egg laying (by producing more eggs) had reduced offspring rearing capacity in the nestling stage. For 27 of the 28 females of which we measured DEE during chick feeding, we also measured DEE during egg laying (te Marvelde et al . 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mismatched reproduction is energetically costly for chick feeding female great tits

et al. 2011

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Summary 1.Climate change has caused a phenological mismatch between the timing of reproduction and the local food peak in many bird species. Late breeding birds therefore experience reduced food availability during chick rearing and are thus predicted to have an increased energy expenditure. Observational studies, however, show mixed results, perhaps because they compare energy expenditure across rather than within individuals at different levels of food availability. 2. In a cross foster experiment, we measured daily energy expenditure (DEE) twice within individuals during chick feeding (when chicks were 6 and 14 days old) for 28 free-living female great tits (Parus major). To avoid confounding effects of chick age, these females reared on both occasions a standardized foster brood of eight 10-day-old chicks during the 24-h measuring period. For all birds, food availability declined between the two measurements. 3. We show that DEE during chick feeding increased within females when food availability decreased. Variation in DEE within females is partly explained by brood visit rates, food availability and temperature. 4. DEE during chick feeding could be affected by the investment in previous stages of the reproductive attempt. However, energy expenditure during chick feeding was not correlated to energy expenditure during egg laying, measured in these same females. 5. Understanding of energetic costs during all phases of the reproductive cycle is important to forecast the consequences of climate warming on timing of reproduction.

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“…Timing of breeding might be constrained by high energetic demands for egg laying (te Marvelde, Webber, Meijer, & Visser, ; Monaghan & Nager, ) as resources are scarce and temperatures low early in the season. Daily energy expenditure did not differ between wild early and late breeding females during egg laying (te Marvelde et al, ), and females selected for early breeding may thus have a lower BMR, that is leaving more energy to produce eggs. As BMR is heritable in birds (Nilsson, Åkesson, & Nilsson, ; Tieleman et al, ), it could potentially respond to selection on timing of breeding if these traits are genetically correlated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic and phenotypic responses to genomic selection for timing of breeding in a wild songbird

et al. 2019

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The physiological mechanisms underlying avian seasonal timing of reproduction, a life‐history trait with major fitness consequences, are not well understood. Comparing individuals that have been selected to differ in their timing of breeding may prove to be a promising in studying these mechanisms, making selection lines a valuable tool. We created selection lines for early and late timing of breeding in great tits (Parus major) using genomic selection, that is selection based on multi‐marker genotypes rather than on the phenotype. We took in nestlings (F1 generation) from wild broods of which the mother was either an extremely early (“early line”) or extremely late (“late line”) breeder. These chicks were then genotyped and, based on their “genomic breeding values” (GEBVs), we selected individuals for early and late line breeding pairs to produce the F2 generation in captivity. The F2 offspring was hand‐reared, genotyped and selected to produce an F3 generation, which were then again genotyped and selected. This way we obtained laying dates in aviaries for F1, F2 and F3 birds. We studied the genetic response to the artificial selection and found increased genetic differentiation between the early and late reproducing selection lines over generations (F1–F3), indicated by both diverging GEBVs and increased fixation indices (FST). We studied the phenotypic response to selection for birds breeding in outdoor breeding aviaries. We found that early line birds laid earlier than late line birds, and this difference increased over the generations (F1–F3), with non‐significant line effects for the F1 and F2, but highly significant line differences for the F3. We also assessed whether there was correlated selection on two traits that are potentially part of the mechanisms underlying seasonal timing: the endogenous free‐running period of the day/night clock (tau) and basal metabolic rate, but found no correlated selection. We have successfully created selection lines on seasonal timing in a wild bird species and obtained an instrument for future studies to investigate the physiological mechanisms underlying timing of breeding, and the genetic variation in these mechanisms, an essential component for evolutionary change in timing of reproduction. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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Energy expenditure during egg laying is equal for early and late breeding free-living female great tits

Cited by 20 publications

References 29 publications

Great tits provided with ad libitum food lay larger eggs when exposed to colder temperatures

Great tits provided with ad libitum food lay larger eggs when exposed to colder temperatures

Mismatched reproduction is energetically costly for chick feeding female great tits

Genetic and phenotypic responses to genomic selection for timing of breeding in a wild songbird

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