Dataset Information

Colony size as a predictor of breeding behaviour in a common waterbird.

ABSTRACT: The choice of colony size may have profound consequences for individual fitness in colonially breeding birds, but at the same time it may require certain behavioural adaptations. Here, we aimed to examine behavioural divergence of common terns Sterna hirundo nesting in colonies of different size. For this purpose, we promoted establishment of small (<35 pairs) and large (>100 pairs) tern colonies under uniform ecological and environmental conditions by providing attractive patches of nesting substrate (floating rafts) at a single site. We combined video recording and GPS-tracking to assess communal and individual defence initiation rate, intra-specific aggression rate, and foraging flight characteristics. We found that birds from larger colonies more frequently engaged in communal defence and they performed longer foraging flights, while terns from smaller colonies more frequently showed individual defence behaviours. Also, intra-specific aggression rate was higher in smaller colonies, but this effect was primarily attributed to a higher proportion of edge breeding pairs, which were more aggressive. Our results suggest that various colony sizes may be associated with different behavioural syndromes, which comprise of diverse personality traits, such as social responsiveness, social tolerance, or propensity for aggression. It remains to be tested whether these behavioural differences reflect processes of phenotypic sorting among colonies of different size or whether they are a result of behavioural plasticity under different social contexts.

SUBMITTER: Minias P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7605668 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Colony size as a predictor of breeding behaviour in a common waterbird.

Minias Piotr P Gach Kamila K Włodarczyk Radosław R Bartos Maciej M Drzewińska-Chańko Joanna J Rembowski Miłosz M Jakubas Dariusz D Janiszewski Tomasz T

PloS one 20201102 11

The choice of colony size may have profound consequences for individual fitness in colonially breeding birds, but at the same time it may require certain behavioural adaptations. Here, we aimed to examine behavioural divergence of common terns Sterna hirundo nesting in colonies of different size. For this purpose, we promoted establishment of small (<35 pairs) and large (>100 pairs) tern colonies under uniform ecological and environmental conditions by providing attractive patches of nesting sub ...[more]

PMID: 33137151

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundIncreases in temperature variability associated with climate change have critical implications for the phenology of wildlife across the globe. For example, warmer winter temperatures can induce forward shifts in breeding phenology across taxa ("false springs"), which can put organisms at risk of freezing conditions during reproduction or vulnerable early life stages. As human activities continue to encroach on natural ecosystems, it is also important to consider how breeding phenology interacts with other anthropogenic stressors (e.g., pollutants). Using 14 populations of a widespread amphibian (wood frog; Rana sylvatica), we compared 1) growth; 2) tolerance to a common wetland contaminant (NaCl); and 3) the ability of tadpoles to acclimate to lethal NaCl exposure following sublethal exposure earlier in life. We evaluated these metrics across two breeding seasons (2018 and 2019) and across populations of tadpoles whose parents differed in breeding phenology (earlier- versus later-breeding cohorts). In both years, the earlier-breeding cohorts completed breeding activity prior to a winter storm and later-breeding cohorts completed breeding activities after a winter storm. The freezing conditions that later-breeding cohorts were exposed to in 2018 were more severe in both magnitude and duration than those in 2019.ResultsIn 2018, offspring of the later-breeding cohort were larger but less tolerant of NaCl compared to offspring of the earlier-breeding cohort. The offspring of the earlier-breeding cohort additionally were able to acclimate to a lethal concentration of NaCl following sublethal exposure earlier in life, while the later-breeding cohort became less tolerant of NaCl following acclimation. Interestingly, in 2019, the warmer of the two breeding seasons, we did not detect the negative effects of later breeding phenology on responses to NaCl.ConclusionsThese results suggest that phenological shifts that expose breeding amphibians to freezing conditions can have cascading consequences on offspring mass and ability to tolerate future stressors but likely depends on the severity of the freeze event.

Project description:Many seabirds breed in large aggregations, making it difficult to estimate their population size and habitat preferences. This knowledge is particularly important considering their function in food webs and ecosystem services. In this study, we investigated the factors affecting distribution and abundance of the little auk Alle alle, a seabird considered a keystone species of the Arctic ecosystem. We performed the study on the W and the NW coast of Spitsbergen. Using Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) and Conditional Inference Tree (CIT) we examined factors related to presence/absence and size (estimated number of breeding pairs) of the little auk colonies. We also tested the nesting preferences for geographical features such as aspect, slope angle, altitude, solar radiation, rock type, and distance to foraging grounds. Our findings indicate that the occurrence of little auk breeding colonies is non-random and highly attributed to environmental factors. The probability of colony occurrence was significantly associated with altitude (negative relationship; preference to sites situated lower), solar radiation (positive relationship; the higher radiation, the more likely colony occurrence) and slope (positive relationship; the steeper a slope, the more likely colony occurrence), whilst aspect appeared non-significant (though the probability of colony occurrence peaked at southern slopes). Colony size was significantly associated with rock type (larger colonies in amphibolite and quartzite). The distance to foraging grounds did not appear to affect the probability of colony occurrence and size, implying that birds may choose optimal breeding sites at the cost of longer foraging flights. We estimated the Spitsbergen little auk breeding population at 728 529 (5-95% CI: 479 312-986 352). Spitsbergen comprises ca 1.9% (95% CI: 1.2%-2.7%) of the world breeding population and represents the third most important breeding area for the species, following the W and the E coast of Greenland.

Project description:Urban sprawl is one of the most common landscape alterations occurring worldwide, and there is a growing list of species that are recognised to have adapted to urban life. To be successful, processes of urban colonization by wildlife require a broad spectrum of phenotypic (e.g., behavioural or physiological) adjustments, but evidence for genetic adaptations is much scarcer. One hypothesis proposes that different pathogen-driven selective pressures between urban and non-urban landscapes leads to adaptations in host immune genes. Here, we examined urbanization-related differentiation at the key pathogen-recognition genes of vertebrate adaptive immunity-the major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-in a common waterbird, the Eurasian coot (Fulica atra). Samples were collected from an old urban population (established before the 1950s), a new urban population (established in the 2000s), and two rural populations from central Poland. We found strong significant divergence (as measured with Jost's D) at the MHC class II between the old urban population and the remaining (new urban and rural) populations. Also, there was a moderate, but significant divergence at the MHC between the new urban population and two rural populations, while no divergence was found between the two rural populations. The total number of MHC alleles and the number of private (population-specific) MHC alleles was lower in old urban populations, as compared to the rural ones. These patterns of differentiation at the MHC were not consistent with patterns found for neutral genetic markers (microsatellites), which showed few differences between the populations. Our results indicate that MHC allele composition depended on the level of anthropogenic disturbance and the time which passed since urban colonization, possibly due to the processes of genotype sorting and local adaptation. As such, our study contributes to the understanding of genetic mechanisms associated with urbanization processes in wildlife.

Project description:Background: Eusociality is widely considered to evolve through kin selection, where the reproductive success of an individual’s close relative is favored at the expense of its own. High genetic relatedness is thus considered a prerequisite for eusociality. While ants are textbook examples of eusocial animals, not all ants form colonies of closely related individuals. One such example is the ectatommine ant Rhytidoponera metallica, which predominantly forms predominantly queen-less colonies that have such a low intra-colony relatedness that they have been proposed to represent a transient, unstable form of eusociality. However, R. metallica is among the most abundant and widespread ants on the Australian continent. This apparent contrast provides an example of how inclusive fitness may not by itself explain the maintenance of eusociality and raises the question of what other selective advantages maintain their eusocial lifestyle. Results: We provide a comprehensive portrait of the venom of R. metallica and show that the colony-wide venom consists of a, for an ant, exceptionally high diversity of functionally distinct toxins. These toxins have evolved under strong positive selection, which is normally expected to reduce genetic variance. Yet, R. metallica exhibits remarkable intra-colony variation, with workers sharing only a relatively small proportion of toxins in their venoms. We also find that this variation is not due to the presence of chemical castes, but that it has a genetic foundation that is at least in part explained by toxin allelic diversity. Conclusions: Taken together, our results suggest that the toxin diversity contained in R. metallica colonies may be maintained by a form of group selection, which selects for colonies that can exploit more resources and defend against a wider range of predators. We propose that increased intra-colony genetic variance resulting from low kinship may itself provide a selective advantage in the form of an expanded pharmacological venom repertoire. These findings provide an example of how group selection on adaptive phenotypes may contribute to maintaining eusociality where a prerequisite for kin selection is diminished.

Dataset Information

Colony size as a predictor of breeding behaviour in a common waterbird.

Publications

Colony size as a predictor of breeding behaviour in a common waterbird.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets