Parental cooperation in a changing climate: fluctuating environments predict shifts in care division

Abstract

Aim Parental care improves the survival of offspring and therefore has a major impact on reproductive success. It is increasingly recognized that coordinated biparental care is necessary to ensure the survival of offspring in hostile environments, but little is known about the influence of environmental fluctuations on parental cooperation. Assessing the impacts of environmental stochasticity, however, is essential for understanding how populations will respond to climate change and the associated increasing frequencies of extreme weather events. Here we investigate the influence of environmental stochasticity on biparental incubation in a cosmopolitan ground‐nesting avian genus. Location Global. Methods We assembled data on biparental care in 36 plover populations (Charadrius spp.) from six continents, collected between 1981 and 2012. Using a space‐for‐time approach we investigate how average temperature, temperature stochasticity (i.e. year‐to‐year variation) and seasonal temperature variation during the breeding season influence parental cooperation during incubation. Results We show that both average ambient temperature and its fluctuations influence parental cooperation during incubation. Male care relative to female care increases with both mean ambient temperature and temperature stochasticity. Local climatic conditions explain within‐species population differences in parental cooperation, probably reflecting phenotypic plasticity of behaviour. Main conclusions The degree of flexibility in parental cooperation is likely to mediate the impacts of climate change on the demography and reproductive behaviour of wild animal populations.

Latitudinal variation in biophysical characteristics of avian eggshells to cope with differential effects of solar radiation

“…We expected that ambient temperatures could have affected eggshell coloration. However, there was no significant relationship between these variables, likely because incubating plovers may control egg temperature using several behavioral strategies (Amat & Masero, ; Vincze et al., ), and thus, the risks of egg overheating becomes relevant only after the eggs remain exposed to direct solar radiation (i.e., when incubating birds depart from nests).…”

Short- and Long-Term Social Effects of Parental Sex Roles in Zebra Finches

“…A recent study suggests that zebra finch pairs use vocal cues to negotiate their incubation efforts, therefore, focusing on within-pair communication may provide insights to coordination between pair members in similar experiments (Boucaud et al, 2016). Manipulating environmental conditions (e.g., by decreasing temperature during breeding) may also facilitate focusing on negotiation, because the significance of parental coordination may increase with deviation from optimal environmental conditions (Vincze et al, 2017).…”

Social interactions predict genetic diversification: an experimental manipulation in shorebirds

“…Parra, S. Zefania, & T. Székely, unpublished data). Nest search, trapping, and behavioral observations followed standard protocols that have been adopted in previous publications ( Székely et al 2008 ; Carmona-Isunza et al 2015 ; Vincze et al 2016 ; Maher et al 2017 ). The traps were continuously monitored until a parent entered the trap and sat on the eggs, and then it was removed immediately to reduce stress and the risk of injury.…”

“…Second, in accordance with the first prediction and known population structure ( Eberhart-Phillips et al 2015 ), Kittlitz’s plovers should demonstrate greater spatial and social interaction with conspecifics than white-fronted plovers. Plovers have often been used as a behavioral model system to understand mating system evolution ( Székely et al 2006 ; Vincze et al 2016 ; Maher et al 2017 ), and testing these predictions using spatial and social interaction data will provide the link between population genetic study and diversification, and mating system variation using the Malagasy plovers as a case study.…”