Search results for "Clutch"

Interaction of climate change with effects of conspecific and heterospecific density on reproduction

2020

We studied the relationship between temperature and the coexistence of great tit Parus major and blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus, breeding in 75 study plots across Europe and North Africa. We expected an advance in laying date and a reduction in clutch size during warmer springs as a general response to climate warming and a delay in laying date and a reduction in clutch size during warmer winters due to density-dependent effects. As expected, as spring temperature increases laying date advances and as winter temperature increases clutch size is reduced in both species. Density of great tit affected the relationship between winter temperature and laying date in great and blue tit. Specifically…

Variation in clutch size in relation to nest size in birds

2014

© 2014 The Authors. Nests are structures built to support and protect eggs and/or offspring from predators, parasites, and adverse weather conditions. Nests are mainly constructed prior to egg laying, meaning that parent birds must make decisions about nest site choice and nest building behavior before the start of egg-laying. Parent birds should be selected to choose nest sites and to build optimally sized nests, yet our current understanding of clutch size-nest size relationships is limited to small-scale studies performed over short time periods. Here, we quantified the relationship between clutch size and nest size, using an exhaustive database of 116 slope estimates based on 17,472 nes…

Competition for resources modulates cell-mediated immunity and stress hormone level in nestling collared doves (Streptopelia decaocto)

2008

International audience; Competitive stress imposed by hatching asynchrony may affect developmental trajectories of offsprings by regulating resource allocation between growth and other fitness-related traits. For instance, the down-regulation of immunity is a commonly observed phenomenon under stressful conditions. However, physiological mechanisms that regulate resources allocation to growth and immune functions in response to competition for resources, as well as inter-sexual differences in physiological strategies, are still poorly investigated. To partially fill this gap, we first conducted a descriptive study on chicks of the collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto), a species producing t…

2015

The eggshell is an important physiological structure for the embryo. It enables gas exchange, physical protection and is a calcium reserve. Most squamates (lizards, snakes, worm lizards) lay parchment-shelled eggs, whereas only some gekkotan species, a subgroup of lizards, have strongly calcified eggshells. In viviparous (live-bearing) squamates the eggshell is reduced or completely missing (hereafter “shell-less”). Recent studies showed that life-history strategies of gekkotan species differ between species with parchment- and rigid-shelled eggshells. Here we test if the three different eggshell types found in the squamates are also associated with different life-history strategies. We fir…

Assessing the efficacy of direct conservation interventions: clutch protection of the leatherback marine turtle in the Dominican Republic

2014

AbstractThe beaches of Jaragua National Park in the Dominican Republic are the country's last known major nesting site for the leatherback marine turtle Dermochelys coriacea. This nesting aggregation is threatened by widespread illegal egg take, and clutch relocation and artificial incubation have been carried out as protection measures since 1974. We assess the efficacy of such efforts and investigate how artificial incubation may be influencing the success and sex ratios of clutches. We compare hatching success, incubation duration and embryo mortality in in-situ clutches (n = 43) with those incubated artificially at sites in the east and west of the Park (n = 35 and n = 31, respectively)…

Efficiency of Split-Way CVT's. A simplified model

2007

ABSTRACT In this paper, a general formula is obtained for the efficiency of all types of Split-Way CVT, consisting of one or two epicyclic trains, a number of fixed ratio gears and one variable speed unit (CVU). It is based on the application of the principle of virtual works and on the simplifying hypothesis that all the dissipation is lumped inside the CVU. The comparison with some experimental results from the literature shows a surprisingly good fit, also in the neighbourhoods of zero speed ratio. INTRODUCTION The possibility of changing the speed ratio continuously between the primary and the secondary shaft of a mechanical transmission is a very interesting topic, mainly in the automo…

A higher incidence of moult–breeding overlap in great tits across time is linked to an increased frequency of second clutches: a possible effect of g…

2021

The rise of temperatures due to global warming is related to a lengthening of the breeding season in many bird species. This allows more pairs to attempt two clutches within the breeding season, thus finishing their breeding activity later in the season and therefore potentially overlapping these with post–breeding moult. We tested whether this occurred in two Spanish great tit Parus major populations. The proportion of pairs laying second clutches increased from 1 % to 32 % over the study period in one of the populations (Sagunto, 1995–2019), while it did not change in the other (Quintos, 2006–2019; mean 5 %). We did not find any temporal trend for moult start date of late–breeding birds i…

Inbreeding does not alter the response to an experimental heat wave in a freshwater snail

2019

Global climate change affects natural populations of many species by increasing the average temperature and the frequency of extreme weather events (e.g. summer heat waves). The ability of organisms to cope with these environmental changes can, however, depend on their genetic properties. For instance, genetic load owing to inbreeding could alter organisms’ responses to climate change-mediated environmental changes but such effects are often overlooked. We investigated the effects of an experimental heat wave (25°C versus 15°C) on life history (reproduction, size) and constitutive immune defence traits (phenoloxidase-like and antibacterial activity of haemolymph) in relation to inbreeding b…

Reproductive Biology and Its Impact on Body Size: Comparative Analysis of Mammalian, Avian and Dinosaurian Reproduction

2011

Janis and Carrano (1992) suggested that large dinosaurs might have faced a lower risk of extinction under ecological changes than similar-sized mammals because large dinosaurs had a higher potential reproductive output than similar-sized mammals (JC hypothesis). First, we tested the assumption underlying the JC hypothesis. We therefore analysed the potential reproductive output (reflected in clutch/litter size and annual offspring number) of extant terrestrial mammals and birds (as "dinosaur analogs") and of extinct dinosaurs. With the exception of rodents, the differences in the reproductive output of similar-sized birds and mammals proposed by Janis and Carrano (1992) existed even at the …

The sperm of aging male bustards retards their offspring's development.

2015

Understanding whether the sperm of older males has a diminished capacity to produce successful offspring is a key challenge in evolutionary biology. We investigate this issue using 10 years of reproductive data on captive long-lived houbara bustards (Chlamydotis undulata), where the use of artificial insemination techniques means parents can only influence offspring quality via their gametes. Here we show that paternal aging reduces both the likelihood that eggs hatch and the rate at which chicks grow, with older males producing the lightest offspring after the first month. Surprisingly, this cost of paternal aging on offspring development is of a similar scale to that associated with mater…