Environmental conditions shape the temporal pattern of investment in reproduction and survival

Marasco, Valeria; Boner, Winnie; Griffiths, Kate; Heidinger, Britt J.; Monaghan, Pat

doi:10.1098/rspb.2017.2442

Cited by 24 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…This suggests that ‘silver‐spoon’ females could allocate more resources to early‐life reproduction and suffer from faster senescence later in life, whereas females experiencing early‐life stress could reduce their investment in early‐life reproduction and delay senescence. Interestingly, mild stress results in reduced early but improved late breeding performance in captive female Zebra Finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ) (Marasco et al 2018). Overall, it is possible that two related processes shape the expression of age‐specific life histories in response to differences in early‐life conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silver‐spoon upbringing improves early‐life fitness but promotes reproductive ageing in a wild bird

et al. 2020

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Early-life conditions can have long-lasting effects and organisms that experience a poor start in life are often expected to age at a faster rate. Alternatively, individuals raised in high-quality environments can overinvest in early-reproduction resulting in rapid ageing. Here we use a long-term experimental manipulation of early-life conditions in a natural population of collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis), to show that females raised in a low-competition environment (artificially reduced broods) have higher early-life reproduction but lower late-life reproduction than females raised in high-competition environment (artificially increased broods). Reproductive success of high-competition females peaked in late-life, when low-competition females were already in steep reproductive decline and suffered from a higher mortality rate. Our results demonstrate that 'silver-spoon' natal conditions increase female early-life performance at the cost of faster reproductive ageing and increased late-life mortality. These findings demonstrate experimentally that natal environment shapes individual variation in reproductive and actuarial ageing in nature.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silver‐spoon upbringing improves early‐life fitness but promotes reproductive ageing in a wild bird

et al. 2020

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“…This is because both the success of a breeding event, and the quality of the offspring produced, can be influenced by parental age at reproduction. The general relationship between age and measures of reproductive performance tends to be an inverted U-shape, showing improvement with age early in reproductive life and a decline in old age [3][4][5][6]. The late life decline in offspring production has been attributed to parental senescence [7,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intergenerational effects on offspring telomere length: interactions among maternal age, stress exposure and offspring sex

et al. 2019

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Offspring produced by older parents often have reduced longevity, termed the Lansing effect. Because adults usually have similar-aged mates, it is difficult to separate effects of maternal and paternal age, and environmental circumstances are also likely to influence offspring outcomes. The mechanisms underlying the Lansing effect are poorly understood. Variation in telomere length and loss, particularly in early life, is linked to longevity in many vertebrates, and therefore changes in offspring telomere dynamics could be very important in this context. We examined the effect of maternal age and environment on offspring telomere length in zebra finches. We kept mothers under either control (ad libitum food) or more challenging (unpredictable food) circumstances and experimentally minimized paternal age and mate choice effects. Irrespective of the maternal environment, there was a substantial negative effect of maternal age on offspring telomere length, evident in longitudinal and cross-sectional comparisons (average of 39% shorter). Furthermore, in young mothers, sons reared by challenged mothers had significantly shorter telomere lengths than sons reared by control mothers. This effect disappeared when the mothers were old, and was absent in daughters. These findings highlight the importance of telomere dynamics as inter-generational mediators of the evolutionary processes determining optimal age-specific reproductive effort and sex allocation.

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“…When energy demands exceed available energy, circulating levels of glucocorticoids rise to fulfil metabolic requirements and to promote adaptive energy-saving behaviours (Busch & Hayward, 2009;Wingfield et al, 1998;Wingfield & Sapolsky, 2003). High baseline glucocorticoid levels over a longer time scale may, however, induce negative consequences for individual fitness (McEwen & Wingfield, 2003;Romero, 2004), although this might depend on stressor type and magnitude, as well as the individual's age in which stressful conditions are experienced (Canoine, Hayden, Rowe, & Goymann, 2002;Marasco, Boner, Griffiths, Heidinger, & Monaghan, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glucocorticoids link forest type to local abundance in tropical birds

et al. 2020

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Selective logging is a major driver of environmental changes in the tropics. Recently, there has been increasing interest in understanding which traits make bird species resilient or vulnerable to such changes. Physiological stress mediated by the steroid hormone corticosterone (CORT) might underlie changes in local abundance of species because it regulates a range of body functions and behaviours to maintain homeostasis in changing environments. We conducted a 3‐year study to assess (a) the variation in CORT levels in feathers (where CORT is deposited during the moult) of 10 understorey bird species across both unlogged old‐growth forest and selectively logged forest in Borneo, (b) how this variation is associated with within‐year variation in population abundance between forest types and (c) whether the difference in feather CORT (fCORT) between co‐specific populations living in unlogged and logged forests in 1 year is related with their difference in population abundance the following year. We used effect size estimates to measure standardized magnitude and direction of fCORT changes between unlogged and selectively logged forest. We found small to large effect sizes, indicating large among‐species variation in physiological acclimatization to changes in forest conditions. In 2016 and 2018, species with relatively higher fCORT in unlogged forest were relatively more abundant in logged forest in the same year; in 2017, species with relatively higher fCORT in logged forest were relatively more abundant in logged forest. Importantly, we found that for a given species, the difference in fCORT at year (x) between unlogged and logged forests was negatively related with a difference in its local abundance between the two forest types in the following year (x + 1). Our results point to glucocorticoid hormones as potential mediators of carry‐over effects on population abundance due to direct and indirect effects of silvicultural practices in tropical forests of Borneo, suggesting fCORT as a potential marker of population changes. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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Environmental conditions shape the temporal pattern of investment in reproduction and survival

Abstract: 21The relationship between environmental stress exposure and ageing is likely to vary with 22 stressor severity, life history stage, and the time scale over which effects are measured. Such

Cited by 24 publications

References 56 publications

Silver‐spoon upbringing improves early‐life fitness but promotes reproductive ageing in a wild bird

Silver‐spoon upbringing improves early‐life fitness but promotes reproductive ageing in a wild bird

Intergenerational effects on offspring telomere length: interactions among maternal age, stress exposure and offspring sex

Glucocorticoids link forest type to local abundance in tropical birds

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