Ecological determinants of<i>Tyrannus</i>flycatcher nestling growth at north- and south-temperate latitudes

Tuero, Diego T.; Jahn, Alex E.; Husak, Michael S.; Roeder, Diane V.; Masson, Diego; Pucheta, Florencia M.; Michels, Tyler J.; Quickle, Aaron; Vidoz, Julián Quillén; Domínguez, Marisol; Reboreda, Juan C.

doi:10.1642/auk-17-62.1

Cited by 16 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…We also identified an interaction between precipitation and ambient temperature on nestling development, potentially reflecting food availability. Warm, wet weather promotes greater food availability for insectivores (Tuero et al, ), facilitating rapid development, while cold storms likely severely depress food availability (Martin et al, ). “Cold storms,” like other ecological extremes, have potentially disproportionate effects on fitness and are increasing in frequency with climate change (Wingfield et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Species experiencing low predation risk tend to prolong offspring development, potentially to maximize post-fledging survival (Martin, Tobalske, Riordan, Case, & Dial, 2018) and minimize the negative long-term fitness consequences of oxidative stress associated with rapid development (Lee, Monaghan, & Metcalfe, 2013). Studies addressing among-and within-population variation have provided support for additional influential drivers of offspring development duration, including: inclement weather (Pérez et al, 2016), microclimate temperature (Dawson, Lawrie, & O'Brien, 2005;Sofaer et al, 2018) and food availability (Stodola et al, 2010;Tuero et al, 2018). Variation in influential factors across populations challenges the generality of predation risk as the predominant driver.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Variation in offspring development is driven more by weather and maternal condition than predation risk

et al. 2019

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Variation in offspring development is expected to be driven by constraints on resource allocation between growth and maintenance (e.g. thermoregulation). Rapid post‐natal development decreases predation risk to offspring, while inclement weather likely prolongs development. For taxa with parental care, parental behaviour may partially buffer offspring against extrinsic drivers like predation risk and severe weather. Using a 7‐year dataset from an alpine population of horned lark Eremophila alpestris, a ground‐nesting songbird in northern British Columbia, Canada, we investigated multiple potential drivers of variation in the duration of incubation and nestling development. Using path analysis, we evaluated the direct effects of weather, predation risk and parental care on offspring development, as well as indirect developmental “carry‐over” effects of conditions during incubation on the nestling period. Nestling period duration varied by nearly 100% (7–13 days) and incubation duration by 40% (10–14 days). Cold ambient temperatures late in the nestling period prolonged development by 1 day for every 2 days below 10°C, particularly when combined with heavy precipitation. Rapid nestling development was associated with high predation risk, and prolonging development incurred a nest survival cost (–2.3% per day). Females in good condition created nest environments that promoted rapid nestling development periods (average = 8–9 days) compared to poor condition females during harsh, early‐season conditions (10–11 days), indicating parental buffering capabilities against environmental constraints. Fledging age was weakly correlated with incubation duration (r = –0.21) suggesting minimal developmental carry‐over effects. Given high nest predation risk, immediate fitness benefits can be derived by overcoming environmental constraints and reducing development time. While predation risk was influential, inclement weather and maternal condition had stronger effects on variation in offspring development. Addressing multiple drivers of variation in key life‐history traits can provide important context for understanding life‐history theory under changing environmental conditions. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13273/suppinfo is available for this article.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in offspring development is driven more by weather and maternal condition than predation risk

et al. 2019

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“…Additionally, we found that warm precipitation prior to and during incubation positively influenced nestling mass in savannah sparrows. While precipitation during the nestling stage can be detrimental to offspring growth (Morganti et al, 2017), warm, wet conditions promote insect abundance (Tuero et al, 2018) and can increase nestling growth if precipitation occurs prior to hatch (Pipoly et al, 2013). Therefore, higher temperatures combined with precipitation may reflect greater food availability during peak nestling growth.…”

Section: Storm Thresholds and Precipitation Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) nestlings from experimentally heated nests increase wing growth (Dawson et al, 2005), suggesting optimal conditions can release energy allocation constraints and maximize size growth. In addition, weather effects on nestling growth are often linked to food resources, either by altering resource availability or by affecting the ability of parents to capture and deliver food (Stodola et al, 2010;Pipoly et al, 2013;Tuero et al, 2018). As such, altricial offspring are highly dependent on parental investment to mitigate their developmental responses to inclement weather (Auer and Martin, 2017;de Zwaan et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Timing and Intensity of Weather Events Shape Nestling Development Strategies in Three Alpine Breeding Songbirds

et al. 2020

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Across taxa, offspring size traits are linked to survival, and lifetime fitness. Inclement weather can be a major constraint on offspring growth and parental care. Despite the adaptive benefits of larger offspring, we have a limited understanding of the effects of severe environmental conditions across developmental stages and how coping strategies differ among species. We assessed the influence of inclement weather on offspring size and mass traits within populations of three alpine breeding songbirds in British Columbia: (1) horned lark (Eremophila alpestris), (2) dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis), and (3) savannah sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis). Specifically, we investigated at which stages during early-life development offspring are most vulnerable to inclement weather and whether thresholds exist in the developmental response to severe weather events. Across species, we identified two critical periods that best predicted offspring size: (1) clutch initiation, and (2) the nestling stage. Colder temperatures experienced by the female during clutch initiation were associated with larger, heavier offspring in horned larks but smaller offspring for savannah sparrows, indicating the potential for maternal effects, albeit acting through different mechanisms. Additionally, horned lark offspring were resilient to colder average temperatures during the nestling stage but were vulnerable to extreme cold events and multi-day storms. In contrast, dark-eyed junco nestlings were robust to storms, but smaller size and mass traits were associated with lower daily maximum temperatures (i.e., more mild temperature challenges). We suggest species differences may be linked to life-history traits, such as: (1) the thermoregulatory benefits of larger body mass in horned larks, (2) the benefits of greater nest cover to buffer dark-eyed junco against precipitation events, and (3) delayed clutch initiation for savannah sparrows to limit exposure to cold storms. We provide evidence for stage-specific impacts of inclement weather on offspring development with implications for reproductive success. These results advance our understanding of early-life resilience to stochastic environments, as we may be able to predict differences in the vulnerability of alpine species to increasingly variable and severe weather conditions. Keywords: dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis), extreme weather and climate events, horned lark (Eremophila alpestris), cold storms, savannah sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis), sympatric breeding, altricial nestling growth rate, high latitude temperate mountains

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“…These models allow the simultaneous inclusion of growth parameters as fixed effects, describing the average growth curve, as well as random effects allowing for random variation around the average values (Sofaer et al 2013, Aldredge 2016. Moreover, NLMM allow a regressive approach where the effect of predictor variables can be evaluated for each growth parameter (Kalmbach et al 2009, Giudici et al 2017, Tuero et al 2018. Therefore, the application of the Richards equation using the NLMM approach appears as a flexible analytical tool to be considered for the analysis of avian growth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Richards's equation and nonlinear mixed models applied to avian growth: why use them?

Svagelj

Laich

Quintana

2019

Journal of Avian Biology

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Postnatal growth is an important life‐history trait that varies widely across avian species, and several equations with a sigmoidal shape have been used to model it. Classical three‐parameter models have an inflection point fixed at a percentage of the upper asymptote which could be an unrealistic assumption generating biased fits. The Richards model emerged as an interesting alternative because it includes an extra parameter that determines the location of the inflection point which can move freely along the growth curve. Recently, nonlinear mixed models (NLMM) have been used in modeling avian growth because these models can deal with a lack of independence among data as typically occurs with multiple measurements on the same individual or on groups of related individuals. Here, we evaluated the usefulness of von Bertalanffy, Gompertz, logistic, U4 and Richards's equations modeling chick growth in the imperial shag Phalacrocorax atriceps. We modelled growth in commonly used morphological traits, including body mass, bill length, head length and tarsus length, and compared the performance of models by using NLMM. Estimated adult size, age at maximum growth and maximum growth rates markedly differed across models. Overall, the most consistent performance in estimated adult size was obtained by the Richards model that showed deviations from mean adult size within 5%. Based on AICc values, the Richards equation was the best model for all traits analyzed. For tarsus length, both Richards and U4 models provided indistinguishable fits because the relative inflection value estimated from the Richards model was very close to that assumed by the U4 model. Our results highlight the bias incurred by three‐parameter models when the assumed inflection placement deviates from that derived from data. Thus, the application of the Richards equation using the NLMM framework represents a flexible and powerful tool for the analysis of avian growth.

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Ecological determinants ofTyrannusflycatcher nestling growth at north- and south-temperate latitudes

Abstract: BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Cited by 16 publications

References 63 publications

Variation in offspring development is driven more by weather and maternal condition than predation risk

Variation in offspring development is driven more by weather and maternal condition than predation risk

Timing and Intensity of Weather Events Shape Nestling Development Strategies in Three Alpine Breeding Songbirds

Richards's equation and nonlinear mixed models applied to avian growth: why use them?

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