Higher rate of nest loss among primary than secondary females: infanticide in the great reed warbler?

Bensch, Steffan; Hasselquist, Dennis

doi:10.1007/s002650050102

Cited by 8 publications

(23 citation statements)

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“…In great reed warblers, polygynous males mainly feed the chicks of the primary nest in a harem (Sejberg et al ., ), so that the primary female will be assisted by the territorial male in feeding the nestlings. The skewed male nestling feeding allocation favouring the earliest hatching nest in the harems could induce intrasexual competition in females (Bensch & Hasselquist, ; Hansson et al ., ), which could then lead to intrasexual competition over arrival date.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selection and evolutionary potential of spring arrival phenology in males and females of a migratory songbird

Tarka

Hansson

Hasselquist

2015

J of Evolutionary Biology

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The timing of annual life-history events affects survival and reproduction of all organisms. A changing environment can perturb phenological adaptations and an important question is if populations can evolve fast enough to track the environmental changes. Yet, little is known about selection and evolutionary potential of traits determining the timing of crucial annual events. Migratory species, which travel between different climatic regions, are particularly affected by global environmental changes. To increase our understanding of evolutionary potential and selection of timing traits, we investigated the quantitative genetics of arrival date at the breeding ground using a multigenerational pedigree of a natural great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) population. We found significant heritability of 16.4% for arrival date and directional selection for earlier arrival in both sexes acting through reproductive success, but not through lifespan. Mean arrival date advanced with 6 days over 20 years, which is in exact accordance with our predicted evolutionary response based on the breeder's equation. However, this phenotypic change is unlikely to be caused by microevolution, because selection seems mainly to act on the nongenetic component of the trait. Furthermore, demographical changes could also not account for the advancing arrival date. Instead, a strong correlation between spring temperatures and population mean arrival date suggests that phenotypic plasticity best explains the advancement of arrival date in our study population. Our study dissects the evolutionary and environmental forces that shape timing traits and thereby increases knowledge of how populations cope with rapidly changing environments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selection and evolutionary potential of spring arrival phenology in males and females of a migratory songbird

Tarka

Hansson

Hasselquist

2015

J of Evolutionary Biology

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“…The average rank of the males' settlement days in the two flanking years were standardized for each year and marsh by means of a Z-transformation (Wilkinson 1987). A great reed warbler female may lay up to two replacement clutches (Bensch & Hasselquist 1994) and red-winged blackbirds up to four (Picman 1981) and the status for each nesting attempt could all be different. Figure 2 depicts this relationship and shows that harem size (1-4) was positively correlated with my measure of territory attractiveness (r = 0-31, n = 116, P = 0 001).…”

Section: Territory Attractivenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Secondary females that achieve the primary position gain four times as much help from the male as do females that remain at the secondary position (Bensch & Hasselquist 1994). Secondary female great reed warblers on territories where the primary nests failed fledged more young than secondary females on territories where the primary nests remained intact.…”

Section: Is There a Cost Of Polygyny?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dickinson The potential cost of polygyny realized by secondary females due to reduced male assistance, might be outweighed by a potential benefit of sharing a male's territory, for example if females help each other in mutual nest defence (Altmann et al 1977). By contrast, it seems as if (secondary) females destroy nests of primary females (Bensch & Hasselquist 1994) indicating conflicts rather than co-operation among females breeding on the same territory. In great reed warblers there are only two reports of females engaging in mutual nest defence (Dyrcz 1977;Bensch 1985) and in the present study I found no evidence for a reduced level of nest loss with increasing harem size (Table 5).…”

Section: Cost Of Polygyny and Nest Predationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Female Mating Status and Reproductive Success in the Great Reed Warbler: Is there a Potential Cost of Polygyny that Requires Compensation

Bensch¹

1996

The Journal of Animal Ecology

121

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. British Ecological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Animal Ecology. Summary 1. Using data from a 9-year study of the great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus L. carried out in Sweden, I tested the main assumption of the polygyny threshold model (that there is a cost of polygyny) and the main prediction (that this cost is compensated for). The main question was whether a female that chose a mated male (secondary females) experienced the same fitness as a female that at the same time chose an unmated male (primary females). The study includes a total of 192 breeding seasons of 104 individual females of which 40% settled with already mated males. 2. Eight potential correlates of fitness were examined; namely, clutch size, hatching success, fledging success, survival until breeding age, nest survival, mass of fledglings, mass of feeding females and annual survival rate of breeding females. I started each analysis by controlling for four potential confounding variables (year, study site, female age and breeding date). Then I compared the average fitness measure of primary and secondary females. 3. The only detected potential component cost of polygyny was a higher mortality among nestlings if a non-primary position within the harem was retained until hatching. This was supported by a natural experiment. Females that initially chose mated males but which achieved a primary position after failure of the originally primary female's nest enjoyed an increased fledging success, probably because of more male assistance. 4. The number of recruits, controlling for settling dates, for the two categories of females were almost identical (primary females 0.53 recruits per year, secondary females 0-51 recruits per year). Since secondary and primary females showed similar rates of survival until next breeding season the fitness of the two strategies appears to be equal. These findings strongly suggest that polygyny in the great reed warbler is best explained by the compensation models such as the polygyny threshold model.

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“…In the polygynous Great Reed Warbler, Acrocephalus arundinaceus, males vigorously defend large breeding territories in which several females can breed simultaneously (, , Catchpole 1983). Males provide parental care, mainly antipredation behaviors and feeding of young, to at least some of the females in their harems (, , Urano 1990, Bensch and Hasselquist 1991 a , 1994). Males and females are monomorphic and dull colored without any ornaments ().…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polygyny in Great Reed Warblers: A Long-Term Study of Factors Contributing to Male Fitness

Hasselquist

1998

Ecology

227

261

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To study the relative importance of factors with direct and indirect effects on male fitness in the polygynous Great Reed Warbler, Acrocephalus arundinaceus, I investigated characteristics of both males and territories in relation to annual and lifetime breeding success. Male harem size and number of offspring recruits (i.e., young surviving to breeding age) were repeatable between years. I analyzed lifetime breeding success using stepwise multiple regressions and annual breeding success by testing for significant trends (over five years) in pairwise correlations with each male and territory characteristic. Male arrival order was the most important factor predicting pairing success, fledging success, and number of offspring recruits, and arrival order was also closely correlated with territory attractiveness rank. Thus females seemed to prefer early arriving males that occupied more attractive territories, and these females also gained direct benefits through increased production of fledglings and offspring recruits. Older males arrived earlier and were therefore able to occupy attractive territories. Male song repertoire size was positively correlated with annual harem size and annual and lifetime production of offspring recruits. Song repertoire size alone predicted male lifetime number of offspring recruits statistically adjusted for number of fledglings produced, i.e., the postfledging survival of offspring. These data suggest that males with large song repertoires sire offspring that have improved viability, and that females mating with these males can gain indirect (genetic) benefits for their young.

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Higher rate of nest loss among primary than secondary females: infanticide in the great reed warbler?

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Selection and evolutionary potential of spring arrival phenology in males and females of a migratory songbird

Selection and evolutionary potential of spring arrival phenology in males and females of a migratory songbird

Female Mating Status and Reproductive Success in the Great Reed Warbler: Is there a Potential Cost of Polygyny that Requires Compensation

Polygyny in Great Reed Warblers: A Long-Term Study of Factors Contributing to Male Fitness

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