Metabolic rate of nocturnal incubation in female great tits,<i>Parus major</i>, in relation to clutch size measured in a natural environment

Heij, Maaike E. de; Graaf, Alexandra J. van der; Hafner, Dennis; Tinbergen, Joost M.

doi:10.1242/jeb.001420

Cited by 29 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…For incubation behaviour we also added clutch size and day of incubation as covariates. We included the female's clutch size as a covariate because larger clutches are energetically more expensive to incubate (Biebach, 1984;De Heij, Van der Graaf, Hafner, & Tinbergen, 2007). Incubation day (day 0 is the day of clutch completion) was included as a covariate since patterns of incubation attentiveness can vary over the incubation period in this species (Gorman & Nager, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal inbreeding reduces parental care in the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata

Pooley¹,

Kennedy²,

Nager³

2014

Animal Behaviour

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Keywords:cross-fostering division of parental care hatching success inbreeding depression incubation maternal effects Increased embryo mortality is the most commonly cited cause of reduced fitness in inbred organisms. Reduced embryo survival may be the result of reduced parental expenditure by inbred individuals and here we tested the hypothesis that inbreeding results in impaired incubation behaviour in captive zebra finches. We compared incubation attentiveness of inbred female zebra finches (derived from full-sibling mating) with that of control females (derived from unrelated parents) and found a statistically significant inbreeding depression of 17% in incubation attentiveness. This shows that inbreeding can significantly influence parental behaviour. Despite a reduction in the amount of time inbred females spent incubating, their partners were able to compensate for the reduced incubation attentiveness. Incubation temperature also did not differ between inbred and control females. To test for the effect of incubation behaviour, we fostered eggs laid by control females to either inbred or control females at the end of laying. Eggs that were incubated by inbred females had an 8.5% lower hatching success than eggs incubated by control females and, although based on a relatively small sample and not statistically significant, the magnitude of the difference was consistent with differences in hatching success observed in the wild under relatively benign environmental conditions. Thus, under more challenging environmental conditions usually encountered in the wild, the reduced incubation attentiveness of inbred females could provide one proximate explanation for the consistent finding of decreased hatching success with increasing maternal inbreeding in birds.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal inbreeding reduces parental care in the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata

Pooley¹,

Kennedy²,

Nager³

2014

Animal Behaviour

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“…Thus, when natural seasonal variation is controlled, birds breeding during periods of cold weather fail at higher rates. This could be due to increased energetic costs associated with colder temperatures (Haftorn, 1978;Ardia et al, 2009;Nord et al, 2010), which leads to reduced egg viability and decreased parental effort (de Heij et al, 2006(de Heij et al, , 2007. However, colder temperatures may also lead to reduced food supplies compounding potential energetic costs, even if parents may increase reproductive effort as costs increase (Ardia and Clotfelter, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Nestbox Thermal Environment on Fledging Success and Haematocrit in Tree Swallows

Ardia

2013

Avian Biology Research

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Nest microclimate, particularly temperature, can affect energy balance of both parents and offspring. Here I investigate patterns of correlation between internal temperatures of artificial nestboxes and fitness in Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor). Nests with cold overnight temperatures were less likely to fledge offspring. Conversely, nests with high daytime temperatures were also less likely to fledge offspring. In particular, nest success declined when internal nestbox temperatures exceeded 35°C. To investigate a potential physiological cause for reduced fitness, I tested whether haematocrit, a rough indicator of blood volume, was related to warmer nest temperatures. Whilst variable, nests with higher temperatures had higher average haematocrit of nestlings on day 13. This may indicate greater evaporative heat loss reflected in lower plasma volumes. These results as a whole indicate that temperatures outside the thermo-neutral zone may influence energy balance of both parents and offspring and may have an important effect on fitness.

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“…For example, environmental factors, such as (seasonal changes in) ambient temperature (Webb 1987;Hatchwell et al 1999;Camfield and Martin 2009;Matysioková and Remeš 2010) may affect the rate at which the eggs cool down and require females to incubate more. In addition, characteristics of the clutch, such as number of eggs, may be correlated with male incubation feeding: females with a larger clutch may require more energy to incubate the eggs or may spend more time on incubation and less on foraging (de Heij et al 2007), so that males may need to feed females incubating larger clutches more frequently. Overall, females are expected to adjust nest attendance and males to adjust incubation feeding frequency in such a way that they shorten the incubation period (Hałupka 1994;Hatchwell et al 1999;Camfield and Martin 2009;Stein et al 2010), decrease developmental risks and/or maximize hatching and reproductive success (Lyon and Montgomerie 1985;Hatchwell et al 1999;Martin and Ghalambor 1999;Tulp and Schekkerman 2006;Stein et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of male incubation feeding on female nest attendance and reproductive performance in a socially monogamous bird

et al. 2017

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The incubation of eggs plays a key role in avian parental care. To ensure embryo development, incubating parents have to keep their eggs within the appropriate temperature limits. To do so, incubating individuals allocate substantial energy to the thermal demands of their eggs, but they face a trade-off with self-maintenance (own metabolism) because they usually cannot forage while incubating eggs. In species with female-only incubation, males can help their partners by providing them with food on the nest, a behavior which may enable females to spend more time incubating and could, consequently, lead to improved reproductive performance. In the study reported here, we first investigated whether incubation feeding by males affects nest attendance by females in Blue Tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) and subsequently determined how this incubation feeding affects reproductive performance. We found that the female nest attendance tended to increase with increasing amounts of food supplied by their male partner. Thus, males may enable females to incubate more when needed, as suggested by our observation that male incubation feeding was more frequent when the ambient temperature was lower, and especially so when females incubated later in the breeding season (during the study period the ambient temperature decreased rapidly over the breeding season, which is exceptional). Although female nest attendance did not result in a shorter time until the eggs hatched or in higher hatching success, females that attended the nest more produced heavier nestlings. We suggest that the trade-off between self-maintenance and meeting the demands of egg incubation likely tends to be less when females received more assistance from their partner during the egg incubation period, resulting in a higher investment in offspring.

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Metabolic rate of nocturnal incubation in female great tits,Parus major, in relation to clutch size measured in a natural environment

Cited by 29 publications

References 30 publications

Maternal inbreeding reduces parental care in the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata

Maternal inbreeding reduces parental care in the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata

The Effects of Nestbox Thermal Environment on Fledging Success and Haematocrit in Tree Swallows

The effect of male incubation feeding on female nest attendance and reproductive performance in a socially monogamous bird

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