Parental effects comprise a wide range of mechanisms that individuals may adopt to enhance viability and adjust the phenotype of their offspring according to the conditions that the offspring will experience after birth. For example, individual choice of breeding habitat may mediate such parental effects via an effect of prenatal breeding conditions independently or in combination with offspring post-natal environment. However, ecological factors relevant to adaptive breeding habitat choice may vary at different spatial scales, which have been rarely investigated simultaneously. In the first part of the present study we use hierarchical linear models to disentangle micro- and macro-environmental variation in abundance and breeding performance of a small passerine bird, the barn swallow Hirundo rustica. We show that environmental conditions at the scale of nesting microhabitat are more influential than macro-environmental conditions at the scale of foraging range. We then experimentally investigate the effect of variation in micro-environmental conditions on growth and immunity of chicks by partially cross-fostering nestlings immediately after hatching between different nesting micro-habitats. Our results disclosed significant effects of environmental conditions where eggs were laid and incubated but not of those where nestlings grew-up on some components of nestling phenotype important for fitness. These results suggest that adults may enhance offspring quality by adjusting prenatal parental effects mediated by e.g., egg quality according to micro-habitat conditions where parents are breeding

Environmental effects at two nested spatial scales on habitat choice and breeding performance of barn swallow / R. Ambrosini, N. Saino. - In: EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY. - ISSN 0269-7653. - 24:2(2010), pp. 491-508.

Environmental effects at two nested spatial scales on habitat choice and breeding performance of barn swallow

R. Ambrosini
Primo
;
N. Saino
Ultimo
2010

Abstract

Parental effects comprise a wide range of mechanisms that individuals may adopt to enhance viability and adjust the phenotype of their offspring according to the conditions that the offspring will experience after birth. For example, individual choice of breeding habitat may mediate such parental effects via an effect of prenatal breeding conditions independently or in combination with offspring post-natal environment. However, ecological factors relevant to adaptive breeding habitat choice may vary at different spatial scales, which have been rarely investigated simultaneously. In the first part of the present study we use hierarchical linear models to disentangle micro- and macro-environmental variation in abundance and breeding performance of a small passerine bird, the barn swallow Hirundo rustica. We show that environmental conditions at the scale of nesting microhabitat are more influential than macro-environmental conditions at the scale of foraging range. We then experimentally investigate the effect of variation in micro-environmental conditions on growth and immunity of chicks by partially cross-fostering nestlings immediately after hatching between different nesting micro-habitats. Our results disclosed significant effects of environmental conditions where eggs were laid and incubated but not of those where nestlings grew-up on some components of nestling phenotype important for fitness. These results suggest that adults may enhance offspring quality by adjusting prenatal parental effects mediated by e.g., egg quality according to micro-habitat conditions where parents are breeding
Breeding habitat choice; Cross-fostering; Hierarchical linear models; Hirundo rustica; Parental effects
Settore BIO/07 - Ecologia
2010
Article (author)
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/152739
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