Effects of breeding habitat (woodland versus urban) and metal pollution on the egg characteristics of great tits (Parus major)

Hargitai, Rita; Nagy, Gergely; Nyíri, Zoltán; Bervoets, Lieven; Eke, Zsuzsanna; Eens, Marcel; Török, János

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.11.116

Cited by 36 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…There is some support for differing maternal effects in rural and urban environments in birds (e.g. egg-yolk composition ;Hargitai et al, 2016;Isaksson, Johansson, & Andersson, 2008). Whether these differences in maternal effects result from differing maternal investment strategies in urban vs. rural habitats, or are a passive byproduct of differences in resource availability (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of urban impacts on avian life‐history evolution: Does city living lead to slower pace of life?

Sepp

McGraw

Kaasik

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

125

145

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The concept of a pace-of-life syndrome describes inter- and intraspecific variation in several life-history traits along a slow-to-fast pace-of-life continuum, with long lifespans, low reproductive and metabolic rates, and elevated somatic defences at the slow end of the continuum and the opposite traits at the fast end. Pace-of-life can vary in relation to local environmental conditions (e.g. latitude, altitude), and here we propose that this variation may also occur along an anthropogenically modified environmental gradient. Based on a body of literature supporting the idea that city birds have longer lifespans, we predict that urban birds have a slower pace-of-life compared to rural birds and thus invest more in self maintenance and less in annual reproduction. Our statistical meta-analysis of two key traits related to pace-of-life, survival and breeding investment (clutch size), indicated that urban birds generally have higher survival, but smaller clutch sizes. The latter finding (smaller clutches in urban habitats) seemed to be mainly a characteristic of smaller passerines. We also reviewed urbanization studies on other traits that can be associated with pace-of-life and are related to either reproductive investment or self-maintenance. Though sample sizes were generally too small to conduct formal meta-analyses, published literature suggests that urban birds tend to produce lower-quality sexual signals and invest more in offspring care. The latter finding is in agreement with the adult survival hypothesis, proposing that higher adult survival prospects favour investment in fewer offspring per year. According to our hypothesis, differences in age structure should arise between urban and rural populations, providing a novel alternative explanation for physiological differences and earlier breeding. We encourage more research investigating how telomere dynamics, immune defences, antioxidants and oxidative damage in different tissues vary along the urbanization gradient, and suggest that applying pace-of-life framework to studies of variation in physiological traits along the urbanization gradient might be the next direction to improve our understanding of urbanization as an evolutionary process.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of urban impacts on avian life‐history evolution: Does city living lead to slower pace of life?

Sepp

McGraw

Kaasik

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

125

145

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Previously, it was shown that great tit eggshells with more aggregated spot distribution contained higher level of copper (Hargitai et al 2016d). Copper is a trace mineral important for bone growth and development, and copper deficiency results in reduced bone strength (Jonas et al 1993, Medeiros et al 1997.…”

Section: Nestling Body Mass Tarsus and Wing Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eggshell spotting pattern is related to hatching asynchrony, hematocrit value and growth of nestling great titsParus major

Hargitai

Herényi

Török

2018

Journal of Avian Biology

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Eggshell pigmentation may signal the quality of the egg, that of the female and the environment, and thus nestling development may be related to this egg trait. However, so far, few studies have investigated the relationship between eggshell pigmentation and nestling development. Our aim was to study in a partial cross‐fostering experiment whether the protoporphyrin‐based eggshell pigmentation (spot intensity and spot distribution) showed any significant associations with several traits related to the development of nestling great tits Parus major. We found that nestlings from clutches with darker spotted eggshells hatched more synchronously, had higher hematocrit value and shorter wings. Females under adverse environmental circumstances were previously shown to lay darker‐spotted eggs, and these females probably delayed the start of incubation due to energetic constraints, resulting in a more synchronous hatching. The shorter wings of fledglings originating from clutches with darker‐spotted eggs may be caused by the lower general quality of their mothers, mediated through either genetic factors or early maternal effects. Darker spotted eggs may contain different levels of some biomolecules than paler spotted eggs, which could have an effect on nestling metabolism and activity, resulting in an elevated hematocrit value. More aggregated eggshell spotting was related to faster bone growth and slightly longer fledging tarsus length. Eggs with aggregated spotting may have thinner eggshells that could lead to hatchlings with smaller bones due to the lower availability of calcium during development. Nestlings may increase bone growth rate to compensate for their smaller initial size. Overall, our results indirectly suggest lower fitness for nestlings hatched from darker spotted eggs and for nestlings hatched from eggs with more aggregated spotting distribution due to the possible long‐term costs of synchronous hatching, shorter wings, and accelerated tarsus growth rate.

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“…The woodland has clayed brown forest soil on volcanic stones (pH 5), and the soil calcium level in the area is low (\500 mg/100 g soil; Hargitai et al 2016a), resulting in very low abundance of land snails (Hargitai et al 2013). Nestboxes were visited daily to determine the initiation of egg laying and the exact laying order of the eggs.…”

Section: Field Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It appears that spot distribution correlates with eggshell thickness (Gosler et al 2005;García-Navas et al 2010;Hargitai et al 2013) and eggshell Cu concentration (Hargitai et al 2016a), suggesting some sort of mechanical function of the aggregated spotting pattern (Solomon 1997). However, variation in female characteristics (Hargitai et al 2016b) or environmental circumstances (this study) do not seem to affect the distribution of pigment spots in our Great Tit population.…”

Section: Breeding Density (Pair/100 M Radius Circle)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…carotenoids, tocopherol) are important, biologically active compounds that are transferred to the egg yolk by avian mothers. Birds cannot synthesize these compounds; they must obtain them from their diet (Goodwin 1984), and their environmental availability may substantially vary between habitats and seasons (Hõrak et al 2002;Hargitai et al 2006;Isaksson et al 2008;Hargitai et al 2016a). These micronutrients are supposed to be a limiting resource (Møller et al 2000), so the ability of the female to invest these vital compounds into the eggs may be affected by the prevailing environmental and social circumstances and the antioxidant requirements of the female.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of environmental conditions on the egg mass, yolk antioxidant level, eggshell thickness and eggshell spotting patterns of Great Tits (Parus major)

et al. 2016

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Avian mothers can influence the fitness of their offspring by resource investment into the egg. Allocation of macro-and micronutrients into the eggs may be costly for the female, therefore, we expect that resource investment may be affected by the environmental and social conditions the mother experiences during egg formation. Here, we investigated whether environmental circumstances experienced by the reproducing female exert an influence on egg mass, yolk antioxidant (lutein and tocopherol) concentration, eggshell thickness, and the eggshell spotting patterns of Great Tits (Parus major). Our study showed that when caterpillars were less abundant, in colder weather and when breeding in an area of higher local breeding density, female Great Tits laid eggs of lower mass, suggesting that adverse environmental circumstances constrain the macronutrient investment into the eggs. However, we found no evidence that yolk antioxidant concentration and eggshell thickness were affected by environmental factors. Female Great Tits may use their endogenous stores or spend more time and energy in finding sufficient amounts of dietary antioxidants and calcium under unfavourable environmental conditions, which may have a cost effect on their own conditions. We found that birds that bred in the beginning of the season laid eggs with darker eggshell spots. Moreover, females laid more spotted eggs in colder weather and when breeding in higher density areas. Our results suggest that Great Tits deposit more of the potentially harmful pro-oxidant protoporphyrin pigment into the eggshell under unfavourable environmental conditions. ZusammenfassungAuswirkungen von Umweltbedingungen auf Eimasse, Antioxidantiengehalt des Dotters, Schalendicke und Fleckung der Eischale bei Kohlmeisen (Parus major) Vogelmütter können die Fitness ihrer Nachkommenschaft durch die Ressourcen beeinflussen, die sie in ein Ei investieren. Die Abgabe von Makro-und Mikronährstoffen an die Eier kann für das Weibchen kostspielig sein, daher ist zu erwarten, dass die Investition von Ressourcen durch Umweltbedingungen und soziale Faktoren beeinflusst wird, denen die Mutter während der Eibildung ausgesetzt ist. Hier untersuchten wir, inwieweit die Umweltbedingungen, denen das Weibchen während der Fortpflanzung ausgesetzt war, einen Einfluss auf die Eimasse, die Konzentration von Antioxidantien (Lutein und Tocopherol) im Dotter, die Schalendicke und die Fleckung der Eischalen von Kohlmeisen (Parus major) ausübten. Unsere Studie zeigte, dass Kohlmeisen-Weibchen in Zeiten geringeren Raupenangebots, bei kälterem Wetter und in Brutgebieten mit höherer lokaler Brutdichte Eier von geringerer Masse legten, was

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Effects of breeding habitat (woodland versus urban) and metal pollution on the egg characteristics of great tits (Parus major)

Cited by 36 publications

References 72 publications

A review of urban impacts on avian life‐history evolution: Does city living lead to slower pace of life?

A review of urban impacts on avian life‐history evolution: Does city living lead to slower pace of life?

Eggshell spotting pattern is related to hatching asynchrony, hematocrit value and growth of nestling great titsParus major

Effects of environmental conditions on the egg mass, yolk antioxidant level, eggshell thickness and eggshell spotting patterns of Great Tits (Parus major)

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