Temperature and Timing of Egg-Laying of European Starlings

Meijer, Theo; Nienaber, U; Langer, Uwe; Trillmich, Fritz

doi:10.2307/1370453

Cited by 87 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…towards the pole) is consistent with previous studies (Baker 1939;Marchant 1974;Ojanen et al 1979;Marchant and Fullagar 1983;Meijer et al 1999;Both and Marvelde 2007). These results in relation to geographical gradients in temperature suggest that future warming will influence the timing of breeding in Australian birds.…”

Section: Timing Of Breedingsupporting

confidence: 92%

Temporal and spatial variability of breeding in Australian birds and the potential implications of climate change

Gibbs

Chambers

Bennett

2011

Emu - Austral Ornithology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Climate change has profound implications for biodiversity worldwide. To understand its effects on Australia's avifauna, we need to evaluate the effects of annual climatic variability and geographical climate gradients. Here, we use national datasets to examine variation in breeding of 16 species of common and widespread Australian landbirds, in relation to four variables: altitude, latitude, year and the Southern Oscillation Index. Analysis of >30 years of nesting records confirmed that breeding was generally later in colder altitudes and latitudes (geographic variation), but was not consistently related to year or the Southern Oscillation Index (temporal variation). However, power to detect expected temporal effects was low. The timing of breeding became significantly earlier with year only in south-eastern Australia. In contrast, an index of breeding activity (the proportion of atlas records for a species for which breeding was reported) increased with increasing winter values of the Southern Oscillation Index (generally wetter conditions) for all 16 species across Australia. This suggests that annual fluctuations in rainfall can have dramatic and immediate effects on breeding, even for largely sedentary, seasonally breeding species. If, as expected, climate change creates drier conditions over much of Australia, we predict a marked negative effect on bird breeding.

show abstract

Section: Timing Of Breedingsupporting

confidence: 92%

Temporal and spatial variability of breeding in Australian birds and the potential implications of climate change

Gibbs

Chambers

Bennett

2011

Emu - Austral Ornithology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As a consequence, the link between the activation and modulation of the HPG axis and the actual egg laying is less well understood. Under cold conditions, egg laying will be delayed in the field and perhaps temperature plays a role in this final fine-tuning stage (Meijer et al 1999). But also unpredictable events such as severe weather conditions or territory loss will determine the laying decision and may induce temporary switching to an emergency life-history stage (Wingfield et al 1998).…”

Section: (A) An Integrated View Of a Phenological Eventmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phenology, seasonal timing and circannual rhythms: towards a unified framework

Visser

Samuel

Oers

et al. 2010

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

294

291

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Phenology refers to the periodic appearance of life-cycle events and currently receives abundant attention as the effects of global change on phenology are so apparent. Phenology as a discipline observes these events and relates their annual variation to variation in climate. But phenology is also studied in other disciplines, each with their own perspective. Evolutionary ecologists study variation in seasonal timing and its fitness consequences, whereas chronobiologists emphasize the periodic nature of life-cycle stages and their underlying timing programmes (e.g. circannual rhythms). The (neuro-) endocrine processes underlying these life-cycle events are studied by physiologists and need to be linked to genes that are explored by molecular geneticists. In order to fully understand variation in phenology, we need to integrate these different perspectives, in particular by combining evolutionary and mechanistic approaches. We use avian research to characterize different perspectives and to highlight integration that has already been achieved. Building on this work, we outline a route towards uniting the different disciplines in a single framework, which may be used to better understand and, more importantly, to forecast climate change impacts on phenology.

show abstract

“…There are several lines of evidence that bird egg laying dates are partly decided according to past ambient temperatures, including that in great tits (McCleery and Perrins, 1998;Meijer et al, 1999;Nager and van Noordwijk, 1995;O'Connor, 1978;Perrins and McCleery, 1989;Salvante et al, 2007;Visser et al, 2003;Visser et al, 1998). From an ecological point of view, this makes sense as bird fitness is closely related to their ability to match their reproduction with the annual, short period of arthropod abundance, which is highly dependent upon temperature (Visser and Holleman, 2001;Visser et al, 2006).…”

Section: Temperature As a Cuementioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, there are supplementary cues, such as temperature, which enable fine-tuning of responses to initial predictive cues, and also provide short-term predictive information about the environment (Wingfield and Kenagy, 1991). The effect of temperature on the timing of breeding has been well documented (McCleery and Perrins, 1998;Meijer et al, 1999;Nager and van Noordwijk, 1995;O'Connor, 1978;Perrins and McCleery, 1989;Salvante et al, 2007;van Noordwijk et al, 1995;Visser et al, 2003), but the proximate mechanisms that precede the behavioural response to temperature cues are still poorly understood (Dawson, 2007;Visser et al, 2009). The effect of temperature on gonadal growth is one striking example.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature-induced elevation of basal metabolic rate does not affect testis growth in great tits

Samuel

Visser

2009

Journal of Experimental Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SUMMARYThe timing of reproduction varies from year to year in many bird species. To adjust their timing to the prevailing conditions of that year, birds use cues from their environment. However, the relative importance of these cues, such as the initial predictive (e.g. photoperiod) and the supplemental factors (e.g. temperature), on the seasonal sexual development are difficult to distinguish. In particular, the fine-tuning effect of temperature on gonadal growth is not well known. One way temperature may affect timing is via its strong effect on energy expenditure as gonadal growth is an energy-demanding process. To study the interaction of photoperiod and temperature on gonadal development, we first exposed 35 individually housed male great tits (Parus major) to mid-long days (after 6 weeks of 8 h L:16 h D at 15°C, photoperiod was set to 13 h L:11 h D at 15°C). Two weeks later, for half of the males the temperature was set to 8°C, and for the other half to 22°C. Unilateral laparotomies were performed at weeks 5 (i.e one week before the birds were transferred to mid-long days), 8 and 11 to measure testis size. Two measures of basal metabolic rate (BMR) were performed at the end of the experiment (weeks 11 and 12). Testis size increased significantly during the course of the experiment, but independently of the temperature treatment. BMR was significantly higher in birds exposed to the cold treatment. These results show that temperature-related elevation of BMR did not impair the long-day-induced testis growth in great tits. As a consequence, temperature may not be a crucial cue and/or constraint factor in the fine-tuning of the gonadal recrudescence in male great tits, and testis growth is not a high energy-demanding seasonal process. Supplementary material available online at

show abstract

Temperature and Timing of Egg-Laying of European Starlings

Cited by 87 publications

References 25 publications

Temporal and spatial variability of breeding in Australian birds and the potential implications of climate change

Temporal and spatial variability of breeding in Australian birds and the potential implications of climate change

Phenology, seasonal timing and circannual rhythms: towards a unified framework

Temperature-induced elevation of basal metabolic rate does not affect testis growth in great tits

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About