The colour of fitness: plumage coloration and lifetime reproductive success in the tawny owl

Brommer, Jon E.; Ahola, Kari; Karstinen, Teuvo

doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3052

Cited by 89 publications

(161 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Female colour polymorphisms have also been reported in fish (McKinnon et al 2000, Pierotti andSeehausen 2007) and several species of birds (Bleiweiss 2001, Roulin et al 2003, Brommer et al 2005. In three-spine sticklebacks Gastrosteus aculeatus, the intensity of orange-red throat colouration appears to be non-randomly associated with migratory behaviour, since there are differences between stream-resident and anadromous females, whereas no such differences were found between males (McKinnon et al 2000).…”

Section: Female Sexual Polymorphisms In Natural Populationsmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Thus, female colour morphs are likely to be targets of direct selection with male mating behaviour playing key role, as is the situation in butterflies and damselflies. In tawny owls Strix aluco, there is a colour polymorphism that is present in both males and females: reddish-brown and grey phenotypes (Roulin et al 2003, Brommer et al 2005. The ecological and physiological consequences of these colour differences is uncertain but they may be related to temperature tolerance.…”

Section: Female Sexual Polymorphisms In Natural Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ecological and physiological consequences of these colour differences is uncertain but they may be related to temperature tolerance. These female colour morphs differ in size, annual survival and reproductive traits (Roulin et al 2003, Brommer et al 2005.…”

Section: Female Sexual Polymorphisms In Natural Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Female polymorphisms, sexual conflict and limits to speciation processes in animals

et al. 2007

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Heritable and visually detectable polymorphisms, such as trophic polymorphisms, ecotypes, or colour morphs, have become classical model systems among ecological geneticists and evolutionary biologists. The relatively simple genetic basis of many such polymorphisms (one or a few loci) makes such species well-suited to study evolutionary processes in natural settings. More recently, polymorphic systems have become popular when studying the early stages of the speciation process and mechanisms facilitating or constraining the evolution of reproductive isolation. Although colour polymorphisms have been studied extensively in the past, we argue that they have been underutilized as model systems of constraints on speciation processes. Colouration traits may function as signalling characters in sexual selection contexts, and the maintenance of colour polymorphisms is often due to frequency-dependent selection.One important issue is why there are so few described cases of female polymorphisms. Here we present a synthetic overview of female sexual polymorphisms, drawing from our previous work on female colour polymorphisms in lizards and damselflies. We argue that female sexual polymorphisms have probably been overlooked in the past, since workers have mainly focused on male-male competition over mates and have not realized the ecological sources of genetic variation in female fitness. Recent experimental evolution studies on fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) have demonstrated significant heritable variation among female genotypes in the fitness costs of resistance or tolerance to male mating harassment. In addition, femalefemale competition over resources could also generate genetic variation in female fitness and promote the maintenance of female sexual polymorphisms. Female sexual polymorphisms could subsequently either be maintained as intrapopulational polymorphisms or provide the raw material for the formation of new species.

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Section: Female Sexual Polymorphisms In Natural Populationsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Female Sexual Polymorphisms In Natural Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Female polymorphisms, sexual conflict and limits to speciation processes in animals

et al. 2007

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“…In the Common Guillemot genes for bridling may have a pleiotropic effect, such that color dimorphism may be associated with another property that is the real target of selection. Several studies of both birds and other animals have suggested that differential performance of morphs across environments are caused by genetic co-variation between coloration and a physiological or behavioral trait (Roulin 2004, Brommer et al 2005, Ducrest et al 2008, Piault et al 2009). However, our study gives no support for any physiological differences related to temperatures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate fluctuations and differential survival of bridled and non‐bridled Common GuillemotsUria aalge

Reiertsen¹,

Erikstad

Barrett³

et al. 2012

Ecosphere

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Abstract. Climate fluctuations and its effects on ecological processes are evident in most areas worldwide but whether such climatic effects are induced phenotypic plasticity or whether animals adapt to the new environment through micro-evolutionary processes is poorly known. In this study we have analyzed long-term data (22 years) on the relationship between climatic fluctuations and the adult survival of two distinct genetic morphs of the Common Guillemot (Uria aalge) breeding in a colony in the southern Barents Sea. In the North Atlantic, the Common Guillemot is a genetic color dimorphic species, with a nonbridled morph, with an entirely black or dark brown head, and a bridled morph having a white eye ring and auricular groove sloping back from the eye. Our results show that the two morphs responded differently to variation in the Barents Sea winter sea-surface temperature (SST). The survival rate of the bridled morph was negatively correlated to the winter SST in the Barents Sea, while that of the non-bridled morph was slightly positively correlated to the same parameter. Over the whole study period, SSTs fluctuated between warm and cold winters and the overall mean survival rates of the two morphs remained similar (96.2% and 95.9% for the bridled and non-bridled morph, respectively). This suggests a balanced selection and a stable dimorphism of the two morphs over this time period. The contrasting trends in the survival of the two morphs with respect to temperature suggest that further warming of the sea may induce directional changes and alter the frequency of the two morphs.

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“…Secondly, tawny owls show continuous variation in melaninbased plumage coloration (from light to dark reddish; for pictures, see Da Silva et al, 2013), the expression of which is strongly genetically controlled and not sensitive, or only weakly so, to environmental conditions (Brommer et al, 2005;Gasparini et al, 2009;Emaresi et al, 2013). Interestingly, differently coloured adult males display alternative trade-off resolution and life histories (Emaresi et al, , 2014.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex- and melanic-specific variations in the oxidative status of adult tawny owls in response to manipulated reproductive effort

Emaresi

Henry

Gonzalez

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Oxidative stress, determined by the balance between the production of damaging reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidant defences, is hypothesized to play an important role in shaping the cost of reproduction and life history trade-offs. To test this hypothesis, we manipulated reproductive effort in 94 breeding pairs of tawny owls (Strix aluco) to investigate the sex-and melanism-specific effects on markers of oxidative stress in red blood cells (RBCs). This colour polymorphic bird species shows sex-specific division of labour and melanism-specific history strategies. Brood sizes at hatching were experimentally enlarged or reduced to increase or decrease reproductive effort, respectively. We obtained an integrative measure of the oxidative balance by measuring ROS production by RBCs, intracellular antioxidant glutathione levels and membrane resistance to ROS. We found that light melanic males (the sex undertaking offspring food provisioning) produced more ROS than darker conspecifics, but only when rearing an enlarged brood. In both sexes, light melanic individuals had also a larger pool of intracellular antioxidant glutathione than darker owls under relaxed reproductive conditions (i.e. reduced brood), but not when investing substantial effort in current reproduction (enlarged brood). Finally, resistance to oxidative stress was differently affected by the brood size manipulation experiment in males and females independently of their plumage coloration. Altogether, our results support the hypothesis that reproductive effort can alter the oxidative balance in a sex-and colour-specific way. This further emphasizes the close link between melanin-based coloration and life history strategies.

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The colour of fitness: plumage coloration and lifetime reproductive success in the tawny owl

Cited by 89 publications

References 30 publications

Female polymorphisms, sexual conflict and limits to speciation processes in animals

Female polymorphisms, sexual conflict and limits to speciation processes in animals

Climate fluctuations and differential survival of bridled and non‐bridled Common GuillemotsUria aalge

Sex- and melanic-specific variations in the oxidative status of adult tawny owls in response to manipulated reproductive effort

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