Functional Integration of Multiple Sexual Ornaments: Signal Coherence and Sexual Selection

Hegyi, Gergely; Laczi, Miklós; Herényi, Márton; Markó, Gábor; Rosivall, Balázs; Szász, Eszter; Török, János

doi:10.1086/720620

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 111 publications

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“…Second, coloration of breeding birds is most often measured when much of the investment in the breeding bout is already over (second half of nestling rearing), so color degradation may influence our assessment of the mating and success consequences and therefore fitness relevance of color 38 , 39 . Such an effect can indeed be detected in the UV coloration of our population 18 , 25 . Therefore, it would be important to widely quantify the degree of plumage color degradation during nestling rearing, and its effect on mating patterns and success correlations.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

“…We suggested that this might be because of the extreme exposure of this area to dirt and abrasion during parental duties 18 . Moreover, UV chroma has been implicated in greater area-specific deterioration than brightness in our population, with consequences for mating patterns 18 , 25 . Therefore, deterioration of the breast UV chroma of males by manipulated reproductive effort is not surprising.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…Each patch was measured twice with subsequent averaging 24 . We did not correct the reflectance measures for parameters of the avian visual system primarily because these reflectance measures are apparently not processed individually but as parts of a larger ornamentation complex 24 , 25 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Differential degradation of color across the plumage has been suggested to occur, frequenting the areas more exposed to damage, particularly the breast 18 . This also influences the integration and functioning of the ornamentation system 25 . Here we applied experimental manipulations of brood size 26 , 27 to clarify the causal effect of reproductive effort, and studied the degradation of color during nestling rearing across three major white areas of the plumage: wing patch and breast in both sexes, and forehead patch in males.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plumage color degradation indicates reproductive effort: an experiment

Hegyi,

Laczi,

Szabó

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Plumage color has traditionally been regarded as a static ornamental trait, but evidence is accumulating for significant color changes without molt that typically reduce the conspicuousness of ornamentation. In some species, the social partner seems to increase its reproductive investment if the color trait is experimentally enhanced, suggesting that color change could act as a signal. However, the information content of this signal is so far unclear. For example, birds in poor condition or making greater effort may deteriorate more severely. We used brood size manipulations to alter the reproductive effort of male and female collared flycatchers Ficedula albicollis. Both sexes showed less severe decline in some reflectance attribute of their white breast when their brood was experimentally reduced. In each sex, greater deterioration of the reflectance trait affected by the manipulation was accompanied by increased feeding rate by the partner. These feeding patterns do not prove, but are consistent with, a compensatory response by the partner to induced degradation. The manipulation effects on color change we detected confirm for the first time that plumage color deterioration can indicate current reproductive effort, thereby providing a potential fitness advantage to social partners that react to such deterioration.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Plumage color degradation indicates reproductive effort: an experiment

Hegyi,

Laczi,

Szabó

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

Self Cite

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“…As can be observed in nature, these stimuli can be spread across a variety of modalities: visual, acoustic, etc. (e.g., Hegyi et al, 2022); that this should be so does not follow from the results of the model, but this can be simply a way to increase the number of attributes to select from. Furthermore, observations are required to construct the beacon for the beacon strategies; what are these observations we do not know, but at least if they are constructed from the population itself, then, once again, sampling is needed, and the larger the sample the better.…”

Section: Direct Extensions and Generalizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beauty beacon: correlated strategies for the Fisher runaway process

Ryabko,

Vaca,

Pazoca

2023

Preprint

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Suppose that females choose males based on attributes that do not signal any genetic quality that is not related to the choice itself. Can being choosy confer selective advantage in this situation? We introduce correlated strategies, which means that females, when making their choice, may take into consideration external and independent random factors that are known to be observable by all. Individual-based simulation is used to show that, in this case, choosiness can emerge against the cost of over 25% when pitted against randomly mating females. Moreover, after being established in the population, it can sustain costs of over 35% . While such costs are not biologically plausible, they demonstrate unequivocally that sexual choice is a strong evolutionary force. Thus, correlated strategies are shown to be an evolutionary tool that channels randomness from the environment into genetic diversity. In addition, it turns out that a higher number of attributes in the ornament makes the choice more advantageous, which may result in a runaway complexity of sexual traits. Implications for the evolution of (female) cognitive abilities and speciation are discussed.

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Prediction of individual differences in non-iridescent structural plumage colour from nanostructural periodicity and regularity

Hegyi,

Laczi,

Wacha

et al. 2024

R. Soc. Open Sci.

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Non-iridescent structural plumage reflectance is a sexually selected indicator of individual quality in several bird species. However, the structural basis of individual differences remains unclear. In particular, the dominant periodicity of the quasi-ordered feather barb nanostructure is of key importance in colour generation, but no study has successfully traced back reflectance parameters, and particularly hue, to nanostructural periodicity, although this would be key to deciphering the information content of individual variation. We used matrix small-angle X-ray scattering measurements of intact, stacked feather samples from the blue tit crown to estimate the sex-dependence and individual variation of nanostructure and its effects on light reflectance. Measures of nanostructural periodicity successfully predicted brightness, ultraviolet chroma and also hue, with statistically similar effects in the two sexes. However, we also observed a lack of overall effect of the nanostructural inhomogeneity estimate on reflectance chromaticity, sex-dependent accuracy in hue prediction and strong sex-dependence in position estimation error. We suggest that reflectance attributes are modified by other feather structures in a sex-specific manner, and that within-individual variation in nanostructural parameters exists within or among feathers and this confounds the interpretation of structure–reflectance relationships at the plumage area level.

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Functional Integration of Multiple Sexual Ornaments: Signal Coherence and Sexual Selection

Cited by 4 publications

References 111 publications

Plumage color degradation indicates reproductive effort: an experiment

Plumage color degradation indicates reproductive effort: an experiment

Beauty beacon: correlated strategies for the Fisher runaway process

Prediction of individual differences in non-iridescent structural plumage colour from nanostructural periodicity and regularity

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