Male experience buffers female laying date plasticity in a winter-breeding, food-storing passerine

Whelan, Shannon; Strickland, Dan; Morand‐Ferron, Julie; Norris, D. Ryan

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.08.014

Cited by 26 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…It is important to note that, after nest failure, renesting attempts are quite successful (23 of 38 renests observed during the study period produced nestlings at 11 day). However, as only early breeders (i.e., those with previous experience [Whelan et al., ] or with access to supplemental food [Derbyshire et al., ]) can renest after a failed attempt, it may be that these individuals still have sufficient food stores despite their rapidly diminishing quality. Additionally, the hypothesized negative impact of increased hoard‐rot resulting from warmer late season temperatures could be offset by increased availability of invertebrates later in the breeding season.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Timing of reproduction and brood size is food limited in this population; females advance laying and have larger brood sizes when food supplemented (Derbyshire, Strickland, & Norris, ). Although there is strong evidence that laying date influences reproductive success in Algonquin gray jays (Whelan et al., ), and warmer autumn temperatures are associated with reduced clutch size (Waite & Strickland, ), we do not know whether temperatures during the incubation and nestling periods alter the fitness costs of late reproduction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…We located nests through behavioral observations and revisited them every 2–5 days to determine laying date and reproductive success. We considered laying date to be the midpoint between the earliest and latest possible dates of clutch initiation, and calculated relative laying date as the female's laying date relative to other females breeding in the population that year (Lewis, Nussey, Wood, Croxall, & Phillips, ; Reed et al., ; Whelan et al., ). Female gray jays sit from their first egg but usually initiate incubation only when the clutch is complete, resulting in an apparent incubation period of 20 days for a typical three‐egg clutch (i.e., 18 days of true incubation plus 2 days from the laying of the first egg to the laying of the third egg; Strickland & Ouellet, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We obtained historical temperature records from Environment Canada for two weather stations: one operated west of the study area (Dwight, Ontario, 45°23′N 78°54′W) from the beginning of the study period until 2005 and the second (Algonquin Park East Gate, Ontario, 45°32′N 78°16′W) began operation within the study area in 2004. We used reduced major axis regression for the period of overlapping station operation to estimate winter temperatures within the study region from 1978 to 2004 by transforming mean daily temperatures from the western weather station with the regression equation (see Whelan et al., ). We calculated mean incubation temperature as the mean of mean daily temperatures between egg‐laying and the estimated hatching date, and mean nestling period temperature as the mean of mean daily temperatures between the estimated hatching date and 11‐day posthatch.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reduced reproductive performance associated with warmer ambient temperatures during incubation in a winter‐breeding, food‐storing passerine

Whelan

Strickland²,

Morand‐Ferron

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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Timing of reproduction can influence individual fitness whereby early breeders tend to have higher reproductive success than late breeders. However, the fitness consequences of timing of breeding may also be influenced by environmental conditions after the commencement of breeding. We tested whether ambient temperatures during the incubation and early nestling periods modulated the effect of laying date on brood size and dominant juvenile survival in gray jays (Perisoreus canadensis), a sedentary boreal species whose late winter nesting depends, in part, on caches of perishable food. Previous evidence has suggested that warmer temperatures degrade the quality of these food hoards, and we asked whether warmer ambient temperatures during the incubation and early nestling periods would be associated with smaller brood sizes and lower summer survival of dominant juveniles. We used 38 years of data from a range‐edge population of gray jays in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, where the population has declined over 50% since the study began. Consistent with the “hoard‐rot” hypothesis, we found that cold temperatures during incubation were associated with larger brood sizes in later breeding attempts, but temperatures had little effect on brood size for females breeding early in the season. This is the first evidence that laying date and temperature during incubation interactively influence brood size in any bird species. We did not find evidence that ambient temperatures during the incubation period or early part of the nestling period influenced summer survival of dominant juveniles. Our findings provide evidence that warming temperatures are associated with some aspects of reduced reproductive performance in a species that is reliant on cold temperatures to store perishable food caches, some of which are later consumed during the reproductive period.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Reduced reproductive performance associated with warmer ambient temperatures during incubation in a winter‐breeding, food‐storing passerine

Whelan

Strickland²,

Morand‐Ferron

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Our motivation for understanding the mechanisms behind environmental degradation of cached food stems from our long-term research on a declining population of Gray Jays (Perisoreus canadensis) at the southern edge of their range [32,110,155,171,176]. Gray Jays cache a wide range of perishable food items during the late summer and fall and use this food for over-winter survival and late-winter breeding [154].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food storage in a changing world: implications of climate change for food-caching species

Sutton

Strickland²,

Norris

2016

Clim Chang Responses

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Food caching is a behavioural strategy used by a wide range of animals to store food for future use. When food is stored, it is susceptible to environmental conditions that can lead to spoilage via microbial proliferation or physical and chemical processes. Given that the nutrition gained from consuming cached food will almost always be less than consuming it immediately upon capture, the degree of degradation will play a central role in determining the ecological threshold at which caching is no longer profitable. Our framework proposes that the degree of susceptibility among caching species is based primarily on the duration of storage, and the perishability of stored food. We first summarize the degree of susceptibility of 203 vertebrate caching species. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of these species are long-term cachers (>10 days) but only 2% are both long-term cachers and store highly perishable food. We then integrate insights from the fields of applied food science and plant biology to outline potential mechanisms by which climate change may influence food-caching species. Four climatic factors (temperature, number of freeze-thaw events, deep-freeze events and humidity) have been shown to affect the degradation of food consumed by humans and are also expected to influence the quality of perishable food cached in the wild. Temperature and moisture are likely important factors influencing seemingly nonperishable seeds. Although we are able to provide broad classifications for caching species at risk of climate change, an improved understanding of how environmental conditions affect the quality and persistence of cached food may allow us to better predict the impact of changing climatic conditions on the fitness of food-caching animals.

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Multispecies comparisons of adaptability to climate change: A role for life-history characteristics?

Saalfeld

Lanctot

2017

Ecol Evol

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Phenological advancement allows individuals to adapt to climate change by timing life‐history events to the availability of key resources so that individual fitness is maximized. However, different trophic levels may respond to changes in their environment at different rates, potentially leading to a phenological mismatch. This may be especially apparent in the highly seasonal arctic environment that is experiencing the effects of climate change more so than any other region. During a 14‐year study near Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, we estimated phenological advancement in egg laying in relation to snowmelt for eight arctic‐breeding shorebirds and investigated potential linkages to species‐specific life‐history characteristics. We found that snowmelt advanced 0.8 days/year—six times faster than the prior 60‐year period. During this same time, six of the eight species exhibited phenological advancement in laying dates (varying among species from 0.1 to 0.9 days earlier per year), although no species appeared capable of keeping pace with advancing snowmelt. Phenological changes were likely the result of high phenotypic plasticity, as all species investigated in this study showed high interannual variability in lay dates. Commonality among species with similar response rates to timing of snowmelt suggests that nesting later and having an opportunistic settlement strategy may increase the adaptability of some species to changing climate conditions. Other life‐history characteristics, such as migration strategy, previous site experience, and mate fidelity did not influence the ability of individuals to advance laying dates. As a failure to advance egg laying is likely to result in greater phenological mismatch, our study provides an initial assessment of the relative risk of species to long‐term climatic changes.

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Male experience buffers female laying date plasticity in a winter-breeding, food-storing passerine

Cited by 26 publications

References 62 publications

Reduced reproductive performance associated with warmer ambient temperatures during incubation in a winter‐breeding, food‐storing passerine

Reduced reproductive performance associated with warmer ambient temperatures during incubation in a winter‐breeding, food‐storing passerine

Food storage in a changing world: implications of climate change for food-caching species

Multispecies comparisons of adaptability to climate change: A role for life-history characteristics?

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