Data from: Age-specific patterns of maternal investment in common gull egg yolk ...

While the general patterns of age-specific changes in reproductive success are quite well established in long-lived animals, we still do not know if allocation patterns of maternally-transmitted compounds are related to maternal age. We measured yolk testosterone, carotenoids and vitamins A and E le...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Urvik, Janek, Rattiste, Kalev, Giraudeau, Mathieu, Okuliarova, Monika, Horak, Peeter, Sepp, Tuul
Format: Dataset
Language:English
Published: Dryad 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dc8dp2j
https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.dc8dp2j
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Summary:While the general patterns of age-specific changes in reproductive success are quite well established in long-lived animals, we still do not know if allocation patterns of maternally-transmitted compounds are related to maternal age. We measured yolk testosterone, carotenoids and vitamins A and E levels in a population of known-aged common gulls (Larus canus) and found an age-specific pattern in yolk lutein and vitamin A concentrations. Middle-aged mothers allocated more of these substances to yolk compared to young and old mothers. These results can be explained through differences in age-specific foraging, absorption, or deposition patterns of carotenoids and vitamins into yolk. If these molecules play a role in antioxidant defense and immune modulation, our results suggest a possible physiological pathway behind the age-specific changes in reproductive success of long-lived birds in the wild. ... : Urvik et al_gull eggs_raw dataRaw data of age specific differences in common gull egg characteristics. Data collected from the field. ...