Unpredictable perturbation reduces breeding propensity regardless of pre‐laying reproductive readiness in a partial capital breeder
Theoretically, individuals of migratory species should optimize reproductive investment based on a combination of timing of and body condition at arrival on the breeding grounds. A minimum threshold body mass is required to initiate reproduction, and the timing of reaching this threshold is critical...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jav.00824 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fjav.00824 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jav.00824 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/jav.00824 |
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crwiley:10.1111/jav.00824 2023-12-03T10:18:26+01:00 Unpredictable perturbation reduces breeding propensity regardless of pre‐laying reproductive readiness in a partial capital breeder Legagneux, Pierre Hennin, Holly L. Gilchrist, H. Grant Williams, Tony D. Love, Oliver P. Bêty, Joël 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jav.00824 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fjav.00824 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jav.00824 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/jav.00824 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Journal of Avian Biology volume 47, issue 6, page 880-886 ISSN 0908-8857 1600-048X Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 2016 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.00824 2023-11-09T13:09:53Z Theoretically, individuals of migratory species should optimize reproductive investment based on a combination of timing of and body condition at arrival on the breeding grounds. A minimum threshold body mass is required to initiate reproduction, and the timing of reaching this threshold is critical because of the trade‐off between delaying breeding to gain in condition against the declining value of offspring with later reproductive timing. Long‐lived species have the flexibility within their life history to skip reproduction in a given year if they are unable to achieve this theoretical mass threshold. Although the decision to breed or not is an important parameter influencing population dynamics, the mechanisms underlying this decision are poorly understood. Here, we mimicked an unpredictable environmental perturbation that induced a reduction in body mass of Arctic pre‐breeding (before the laying period) female common eiders Somateria mollissima a long‐lived migratory seaduck, while controlling for individual variation in the pre‐laying physiological reproductive readiness via vitellogenin (VTG) – a yolk‐targeted lipoprotein. Our aim was to causally determine the interaction between body condition and pre‐laying reproductive readiness (VTG) on breeding propensity by experimentally reducing body mass in treatment females. We first demonstrated that arrival body condition was a key driver of breeding propensity. Secondly, we found that treatment and VTG levels interacted to influence breeding propensity, indicating that our experimental manipulation, mimicking an unpredictable food shortage, reduced breeding propensity, regardless of the degree of pre‐laying physiological reproductive readiness (i.e. timing of ovarian follicles recruitment). Our experiment demonstrates that momentary environmental perturbations during the pre‐breeding period can strongly affect the decision to breed, a key parameter driving population dynamics. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Somateria mollissima Wiley Online Library (via Crossref) Arctic Journal of Avian Biology 47 6 880 886 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
topic |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Legagneux, Pierre Hennin, Holly L. Gilchrist, H. Grant Williams, Tony D. Love, Oliver P. Bêty, Joël Unpredictable perturbation reduces breeding propensity regardless of pre‐laying reproductive readiness in a partial capital breeder |
topic_facet |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
Theoretically, individuals of migratory species should optimize reproductive investment based on a combination of timing of and body condition at arrival on the breeding grounds. A minimum threshold body mass is required to initiate reproduction, and the timing of reaching this threshold is critical because of the trade‐off between delaying breeding to gain in condition against the declining value of offspring with later reproductive timing. Long‐lived species have the flexibility within their life history to skip reproduction in a given year if they are unable to achieve this theoretical mass threshold. Although the decision to breed or not is an important parameter influencing population dynamics, the mechanisms underlying this decision are poorly understood. Here, we mimicked an unpredictable environmental perturbation that induced a reduction in body mass of Arctic pre‐breeding (before the laying period) female common eiders Somateria mollissima a long‐lived migratory seaduck, while controlling for individual variation in the pre‐laying physiological reproductive readiness via vitellogenin (VTG) – a yolk‐targeted lipoprotein. Our aim was to causally determine the interaction between body condition and pre‐laying reproductive readiness (VTG) on breeding propensity by experimentally reducing body mass in treatment females. We first demonstrated that arrival body condition was a key driver of breeding propensity. Secondly, we found that treatment and VTG levels interacted to influence breeding propensity, indicating that our experimental manipulation, mimicking an unpredictable food shortage, reduced breeding propensity, regardless of the degree of pre‐laying physiological reproductive readiness (i.e. timing of ovarian follicles recruitment). Our experiment demonstrates that momentary environmental perturbations during the pre‐breeding period can strongly affect the decision to breed, a key parameter driving population dynamics. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Legagneux, Pierre Hennin, Holly L. Gilchrist, H. Grant Williams, Tony D. Love, Oliver P. Bêty, Joël |
author_facet |
Legagneux, Pierre Hennin, Holly L. Gilchrist, H. Grant Williams, Tony D. Love, Oliver P. Bêty, Joël |
author_sort |
Legagneux, Pierre |
title |
Unpredictable perturbation reduces breeding propensity regardless of pre‐laying reproductive readiness in a partial capital breeder |
title_short |
Unpredictable perturbation reduces breeding propensity regardless of pre‐laying reproductive readiness in a partial capital breeder |
title_full |
Unpredictable perturbation reduces breeding propensity regardless of pre‐laying reproductive readiness in a partial capital breeder |
title_fullStr |
Unpredictable perturbation reduces breeding propensity regardless of pre‐laying reproductive readiness in a partial capital breeder |
title_full_unstemmed |
Unpredictable perturbation reduces breeding propensity regardless of pre‐laying reproductive readiness in a partial capital breeder |
title_sort |
unpredictable perturbation reduces breeding propensity regardless of pre‐laying reproductive readiness in a partial capital breeder |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jav.00824 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fjav.00824 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jav.00824 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/jav.00824 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Somateria mollissima |
genre_facet |
Arctic Somateria mollissima |
op_source |
Journal of Avian Biology volume 47, issue 6, page 880-886 ISSN 0908-8857 1600-048X |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.00824 |
container_title |
Journal of Avian Biology |
container_volume |
47 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
880 |
op_container_end_page |
886 |
_version_ |
1784265416618541056 |