Optimal maternal incubation strategies for altricial and precocial birds

Cones, Alexandra G.; Crowley, Philip H.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2020.109290

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…Meanwhile, parents lost more weight when providing higher amount of care during the larvae provisioning stage. This is in agreement with biparental birds in which incomplete compensation is often the result of physical limitations (Drent and Daan, 1980;Jones et al, 2002;Matysioková and Remeš, 2014;Cones and Crowley, 2020;Williams and DeLeon, 2020). In contrast, males exhibited compensation behavior regardless of brood size, and this may be because they provided less care and worked at a lower level than females and gained more weight than females.…”

Section: Effects Of Parental Care System and Brood Size And Their Interaction On The Amount Of Care And Weight Changesupporting

confidence: 84%

Parental Care System and Brood Size Drive Sex Difference in Reproductive Allocation: An Experimental Study on Burying Beetles

Wang

Versteegh

et al. 2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Life-history theory predicts that increased resource allocation in current reproduction comes at the cost of survival and future reproductive fitness. In taxa with biparental care, each parent can adjust investment on current reproduction according to changes in their partner’s effort, but these adjustments may be different for males and females as they may have different reproductive strategies. Numerous theoretical and empirical studies have proposed the mechanism underlying such adjustments. In addition, the value of the brood or litter (brood size) has also been suggested to affect the amount of care through manipulation of brood size. While the two conditions have been studied independently, the impact of their interplay on potential sex-dependent future reproductive performance remains largely unknown. In this study, we simultaneously manipulated both care system (removal of either parent vs. no removal) and brood size in a burying beetle (Nicrophorus vespilloides) to understand their joint effect on reproductive allocation and trade-off between current and future reproduction. Our results show that males compensated for mate loss by significantly increasing the level of care regardless of brood size, while females exhibited such compensation only for small brood size. Additionally, with an increase in allocation to current reproduction, males showed decreased parental investment during the subsequent breeding event as a pair. These findings imply a dual influence of parental care system and brood size on allocation in current reproduction. Moreover, the impact of such adjustments on sex-dependent differences in future reproduction (parental care, larvae number, and average larval mass at dispersal) is also demonstrated. Our findings enhance the understanding of sex roles in parental investment and highlight their importance as drivers of reproductive allocation.

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Section: Effects Of Parental Care System and Brood Size And Their Interaction On The Amount Of Care And Weight Changesupporting

confidence: 84%

Parental Care System and Brood Size Drive Sex Difference in Reproductive Allocation: An Experimental Study on Burying Beetles

Wang

Versteegh

et al. 2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…Incubation, the next step after egg-laying, is a stage that affects the success of hatching, nestling growth, fledging, and post-fledging survival ( Wang and Beissinger, 2011 ; Cones and Crowley, 2020 ). During this phase, females stay at the nest to provide protection and heat to the eggs, while the male forages for food.…”

Section: Parental Behavior In Precocial Species According To Breeding...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The endocrine processes help regulate and coordinate parental care activities, including nesting, laying, incubating, hatching, feeding, protection and social bonding ( Vleck and Vleck, 2011 ; Smiley, 2019 ). The specific hormonal profiles and interactions differ between precocial and altricial birds due to their distinct reproductive strategies and developmental needs ( Cones and Crowley, 2020 ). However, in both cases, the endocrine system plays a crucial role in facilitating the expression of parental care and the formation of strong attachments between parents and their offspring.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental behavior and newborn attachment in birds: life history traits and endocrine responses

et al. 2023

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In birds, parental care and attachment period differ widely depending on the species (altricial or precocial), developmental strategies, and life history traits. In most bird species, parental care can be provided by both female and male individuals and includes specific stages such as nesting, laying, and hatching. During said periods, a series of neuroendocrine responses are triggered to motivate parental care and attachment. These behaviors are vital for offspring survival, development, social bonding, intergenerational learning, reproductive success, and ultimately, the overall fitness and evolution of bird populations in a variety of environments. Thus, this review aims to describe and analyze the behavioral and endocrine systems of parental care and newborn attachment in birds during each stage of the post-hatching period.

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“…Understanding how short-term thermal fluctuations influence parental behavior in real time is critical for understanding drivers of the developmental environment (24). Low-resolution, temporally averaged thermal data is useful in many contexts, especially when exploring seasonal trends in behavioral patterns (25). For instance, greater than average temperature over the course of a reproductive season in birds (i.e., low-resolution thermal and behavioral data) is associated with shorter incubation periods (26,27), possibly indicating a reduced cost of reproduction for parents.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical reproductive behaviors in Scaled Quail and Northern Bobwhite are affected by thermal variability and mean temperature

Kirkpatrick,

Sauer,

Carroll

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Environmental conditions can influence parental care behaviors, which in turn can greatly affect the microhabitat conditions experienced by developing offspring. It is critical to uncover relationships between ambient weather, parental behaviors, and offspring thermal environments to understand the ability of organisms to mitigate environmental conditions and predict outcomes under climate change. In warm conditions, avian parents may spend longer periods away from the nest, but we know little of how increased thermal variation drives these changes or what temporal scale influences the changes. We examined how parents mediate environmental conditions for developing offspring in two quail species, Scaled Quail (Callipepla squamata) and Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginiatus), by examining changes in the duration and timing of incubation off-bouts (recesses away from the nest) in relation to mean temperature and temperature variability experienced over either a 24-hour period (low resolution) or in the two hours immediately preceding an off-bout (high resolution). We found species-specific differences in off-bout duration, with Scaled Quail spending a significantly shorter time off the nest daily. In both species, we detected a positive relationship between average thermal conditions and the start time of afternoon off-bouts. Alternatively, morning off-bouts occur earlier in response to increased thermal variation from the previous day. Warm conditions immediately preceding off-bouts led to increased off-bout duration with the opposite trend in response to increased variation. Our findings suggest that the thermal environment, in contrasting ways over varying thermal and temporal scales, can have a significant impact on parental care behaviors. These alterations can lead to altered thermal environments for offspring across multiple scales. Therefore, determining how the thermal environment induces behavioral changes requires high-resolution environmental data.

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Optimal maternal incubation strategies for altricial and precocial birds

Cited by 7 publications

References 73 publications

Parental Care System and Brood Size Drive Sex Difference in Reproductive Allocation: An Experimental Study on Burying Beetles

Parental Care System and Brood Size Drive Sex Difference in Reproductive Allocation: An Experimental Study on Burying Beetles

Parental behavior and newborn attachment in birds: life history traits and endocrine responses

Critical reproductive behaviors in Scaled Quail and Northern Bobwhite are affected by thermal variability and mean temperature

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