A Thirty-Year Study of Phenotypic and Genetic Variation of Blue Tits in Mediterranean Habitat Mosaics

Habitat and Annual Variation in Arthropod Abundance Affects Blue TitCyanistes caeruleusReproduction

“…In general, the abundance of caterpillars in our study habitats is high in comparison with many other areas (Bańbura et al 1994, Thomas et al 2001, Bańbura et al 2004. Blondel et al (2006) suggested that the abundance of caterpillars has a direct effect on Corsican Blue Tit reproduction up to the threshold value of 0.5 g/m 2 /day of frassfall.…”

“…This enables females (pairs) to optimise the reproductive investment in clutch size with respect to weather, food abundance and individual physiological condition (Perrins 1965, Pettifor et al 1988). The inter-habitat and inter-year differences in clutch size that clearly correspond to differences in the abundance of caterpillars suggests that the response of Blue Tits in both habitats of the study system is rather adaptive than non-adaptive (Pettifor et al 1988, Dhondt et al 1990, Thomas et al 2001, Postma & van Noordwijk 2005, Blondel et al 2006, Ziane et al 2006. The breeding success response to differences in food abundance may probably be wider in range than suggested by Blondel et al (2006) for Mediterranean populations of Blue Tits, as shown by the pattern of inter-year and inter-habitat variation in clutch size linked to variation in caterpillar availability in our study system.…”

“…As a consequence, most herbivorous insects synchronise their life-cycle stages demanding rich food resources with a relatively short time when leaves develop from buds. It is also possible that bud consumption may provide adult tits with some cues when to start laying eggs (Bourgault et al 2006). Different trees show different chemistry and phenologies, especially at the inter-species level but also, to some extent, at the intra-population level (Lawrence et al 1997, Martel & Kause 2002, Cizek et al 2006.…”

Determining Selection across Heterogeneous Landscapes: A Perturbation-Based Method and Its Application to Modeling Evolution in Space

“…However, understanding the interactions among spatial structure, population dynamics, and evolutionary dynamics has proved challenging. It is well recognized that the direction and magnitude of selection experienced by a population in a heterogeneous landscape depends both on the spatial pattern of local selection pressures and on the movement rates of individuals and genes across the landscape (Thompson 1999;Blondel et al 2006). It is far from obvious under which circumstances this interplay of local selection, resulting from local ecological dynamics, and homogenizing dispersal results in directional selection, evolutionary stasis, or evolutionary diversification.…”

Rainfall, leafing phenology and sunrise time as potential Zeitgeber for the bimodal, dry season laying pattern of an African rain forest tit (Parus fasciiventer)

“…This general pattern has been studied in considerable detail (e.g., Lack 1966;Perrins 1979;Blondel et al 1990Blondel et al , 2006Nager and van Noordwijk 1995;Ramsay and Otter 2007;Lehmann et al 2012), enabling researchers to examine the effects of climate change on breeding seasonality and population dynamics at north temperate latitudes (Visser et al 1998Saether et al 2003;Both et al 2004;Nussey et al 2005;Visser et al 2006;Charmantier et al 2008;Visser et al 2010;Reed et al 2013;Gienapp et al 2014), where the two main proximate cues for egg laying-day length and temperaturevary markedly throughout the year. Most passerines live at tropical or sub-tropical latitudes, however, where seasonal variation in these cues is much less pronounced and breeding activity is often considered to be relatively aseasonal, particularly in rain forest habitats.…”