Who cares? An integrative approach to understanding the evolution of behavioural plasticity in parental care

Westrick, Sarah E; Moss, Jeanette B; Fischer, Eva K.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.10.005

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Existing studies demonstrate that anuran parents are making complex, multi-faceted decisions at both egg and tadpole deposition time points, and the diversity of reproductive modes among closely and distantly related anurans provides fertile ground for exploring sexual conflict and cooperation as the decision of egg versus tadpole deposition sites may be controlled by the same or opposite sex. Ultimately, linking the mechanisms and consequences of individual decision-making to the role of sexual conflict in species where males and/or females perform tadpole transport and therefore have control of later stages of development, will shed light on how intraspecific variation drives interspecific divergence [11].…”

Section: Why Anuran Nests and Nesting?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Form, function, foam: evolutionary ecology of anuran nests and nesting behaviour

Fischer

2023

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Amphibians exhibit an incredible diversity of reproductive and life-history strategies, including various forms of nest construction and nesting behaviour. Although anuran amphibians (frogs and toads) are not known for their nests, nesting behaviour in this clade—broadly defined as a location chosen or constructed for eggs and young—is tightly linked to the amphibious lifestyle of this group. Transitions to increasingly terrestrial living have driven reproductive diversity in anurans, including the repeated, independent evolution of nests and nesting. Indeed, a core feature of many notable anuran adaptations—including nesting behaviour—is the maintenance of an aquatic environment for developing offspring. The tight link between increasingly terrestrial reproduction and morphological, physiological and behavioural diversity in anurans provides inroads for studying the evolutionary ecology of nests, their architects and their contents. This review provides an overview of nests and nesting behaviour in anurans, highlighting areas where additional work may be particularly fruitful. I take an intentionally broad view of what constitutes nesting to highlight what we can learn from thinking and researching comparatively across anurans and vertebrates more broadly. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The evolutionary ecology of nests: a cross-taxon approach’.

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Section: Why Anuran Nests and Nesting?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…in nest site choice, nest structure, nesting propensity) relate to the evolution of variation between species? (See [11] for a case study in the context of parental care. )…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Form, function, foam: evolutionary ecology of anuran nests and nesting behaviour

Fischer

2023

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…Due to their susceptibility to the amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis ( Bd ) (Courtois et al, 2015) and conservation status (Guillory et al, 2019), the development of non-invasive measurements of GCs is important for studying poison frog physiology and informing conservation efforts. Neotropical poison frogs are primarily diurnal and terrestrial, and have been gaining attention in behavioral ecology and neuroethology due to their interesting parental behavior (Ringler et al, 2023; Roland and O’Connell, 2015; Westrick et al, 2023). In addition, poison frogs vary in size but generally are relatively small, with an average snout-vent length (SVL) of ∼17-60 mm.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why not both? A case study measuring cortisol and corticosterone in poison frogs

Westrick

Paitz

Fischer

2023

Preprint

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A general tenet in stress physiology is that the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis predominantly produces one glucocorticoid (GC) in response to stressors. Researchers typically measure only the GC believed to be dominant in their species of interest; however, the two main glucocorticoids produced by vertebrates - cortisol and corticosterone - show variation across species in absolute levels, relative proportions, and stress responsivity. Therefore, generalizing assumptions and focusing on a single GC may not tell the whole story. In this study, we measured both cortisol and corticosterone in water samples collected from five species of Dendrobatid poison frogs. Understanding the full picture of the physiological stress response in poison frogs is of special interest due to their susceptibility to environmental stressors and conservation status. Counter to the dogma that corticosterone is dominant and more abundant in amphibians, we found cortisol was more abundant than corticosterone in four of the five species. Dendrobates tinctorius was unique in releasing equal amounts of cortisol and corticosterone. When we stimulated the HPA axis in D. tinctorius, we found corticosterone was responsive to adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), while cortisol did not change. Comparing plasma and water samples, we found water-borne cortisol was positively correlated with cortisol in plasma and the relationship between plasma and water-borne corticosterone was positive but not statistically significant. These results challenge the broadly accepted assumption that corticosterone is 'dominant' in amphibians and add to the growing literature highlighting the importance of measuring both GCs to understand (stress) physiology.

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Burying beetles as a model organism to study sex differences in parental care

Ratz

2024

Insect. Soc.

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In species where both sexes care for offspring, one parent—generally the female—typically provides more care than the other. While current theory offers broad predictions on the evolution of sex differences in parental care, it remains unclear whether ecological factors, such as short-term environmental variation and the intrinsic state of parents, also influence the size of existing asymmetries between parents. Here, I highlight how recent work on burying beetles (Nicrophorus sp.), a now well-established taxon to study biparental care, has contributed to research on sex differences in parenting. Although female burying beetles provide more care than males, the extent of this asymmetry is context-dependent as each sex constantly readjusts care depending on the surrounding environment and own state. Nevertheless, despite variation in the magnitude of the sex differences, there are still clear patterns of care specific to each species, highlighting the importance of the evolutionary history. Finally, the presence of sex differences presumably has consequences for the efficiency of parental care and can affect offspring performance. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the life-history and environmental conditions driving sex differences in parenting, we need more natural history research on the less commonly studied Nicrophorus species and more work examining behavioural responses to rapid environmental changes in all taxa. Addressing these gaps will contribute to our understanding of how sexual conflict over care is resolved and how biparental cooperation persists despite asymmetries between caring parents.

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Who cares? An integrative approach to understanding the evolution of behavioural plasticity in parental care

Cited by 9 publications

References 100 publications

Form, function, foam: evolutionary ecology of anuran nests and nesting behaviour

Form, function, foam: evolutionary ecology of anuran nests and nesting behaviour

Why not both? A case study measuring cortisol and corticosterone in poison frogs

Burying beetles as a model organism to study sex differences in parental care

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