Resource availability hypothesis: Perceived financial and caloric status affect individuals' height preferences for potential partners

2015 ◽  
Vol 51 (5) ◽  
pp. 340-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingzhou Sun ◽  
Liandi Lou ◽  
Jingyi Lu ◽  
Xiaoming Wang ◽  
Jun Zhong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resource Availability ◽  
Resource Availability Hypothesis

scholarly journals Mammalian body size is determined by interactions between climate, urbanization, and ecological traits

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maggie M. Hantak ◽  
Bryan S. McLean ◽  
Daijiang Li ◽  
Robert P. Guralnick
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Body Size Variation ◽  
Resource Availability Hypothesis ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
Thermal Buffering

AbstractAnthropogenically-driven climate warming is a hypothesized driver of animal body size reductions. Less understood are effects of other human-caused disturbances on body size, such as urbanization. We compiled 140,499 body size records of over 100 North American mammals to test how climate and human population density, a proxy for urbanization, and their interactions with species traits, impact body size. We tested three hypotheses of body size variation across urbanization gradients: urban heat island effects, habitat fragmentation, and resource availability. Our results demonstrate that both urbanization and temperature influence mammalian body size variation, most often leading to larger individuals, thus supporting the resource availability hypothesis. In addition, life history and other ecological factors play a critical role in mediating the effects of climate and urbanization on body size. Larger mammals and species that utilize thermal buffering are more sensitive to warmer temperatures, while flexibility in activity time appears to be advantageous in urbanized areas. This work highlights the value of using digitized, natural history data to track how human disturbance drives morphological variation.

scholarly journals Habitat productivity is a poor predictor of body size in rodents

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bader H Alhajeri ◽  
Lucas M V Porto ◽  
Renan Maestri
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Least Squares ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Generalized Least Squares ◽  
Habitat Productivity ◽  
Resource Availability Hypothesis

Abstract The “resource availability hypothesis” predicts occurrence of larger rodents in more productive habitats. This prediction was tested in a dataset of 1,301 rodent species. We used adult body mass as a measure of body size and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as a measure of habitat productivity. We utilized a cross-species approach to investigate the association between these variables. This was done at both the order level (Rodentia) and at narrower taxonomic scales. We applied phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS) to correct for phylogenetic relationships. The relationship between body mas and NDVI was also investigated across rodent assemblages. We controlled for spatial autocorrelation using generalized least squares (GLS) analysis. The cross-species approach found extremely low support for the resource availability hypothesis. This was reflected by a weak positive association between body mass and NDVI at the order level. We find a positive association in only a minority of rodent subtaxa. The best fit GLS model detected no significant association between body mass and NDVI across assemblages. Thus, our results do not support the view that resource availability plays a major role in explaining geographic variation in rodent body size.

scholarly journals Mammalian body size is determined by interactions between climate, urbanization, and life history traits

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maggie Hantak ◽  
Bryan McLean ◽  
Daijiang Li ◽  
Robert Guralnick
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Body Size ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Size Change ◽  
Resource Availability Hypothesis ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
Thermal Buffering ◽  
Urbanization Gradients

Anthropogenically-driven climate warming is a hypothesized driver of animal body size reductions. Less understood are effects of other human-caused disturbances on body size, such as urbanization. We compiled 140,499 body size records of over 100 North American mammals to test how climate and urbanization, and their interactions with species traits, impact body size. We tested three hypotheses of body size change across urbanization gradients; urban heat island effects, fragmentation, and resource availability. Our results unexpectedly demonstrate urbanization is more tightly linked with body size changes than temperature, most often leading to larger individuals, thus supporting the resource availability hypothesis. In addition, life history traits, such as thermal buffering, activity time, and average body size play critical roles in mediating the effects of both climate and urbanization on intraspecific body size trends. This work highlights the value of using digitized, natural history data to track how human disturbance drives morphological change.

scholarly journals Resource Allocation Among Cladodes of Opuntia Robusta From East-central Mexico

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Héctor Javier León-Solano ◽  
Mariusz Krzysztof Janczur ◽  
Emilio González-Camarena ◽  
Marcin Czarnoleski ◽  
Bartosz Jenner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resource Allocation ◽  
Salicylic Acid ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Stress Factors ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Hydroxybenzoic Acid ◽  
East Central ◽  
Vegetative Tissues ◽  
Resource Availability Hypothesis ◽  
New Hypothesis

Abstract The Optimal Defense Hypothesis (ODH) predicts that younger, more valuable plant organs should be better defended. We tested this hypothesis in Opuntia robusta Wendl. since its sequential, hierarchical and segmented architecture permits the consideration of a possible reallocation of secondary metabolites among cladodes with different age. We performed a field study taking samples of vegetative tissues from cladodes of different orders during eight months, and a field experiment, by covering either apical or basal cladodes with a fabric. We determined the content of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (4-HBA), chlorogenic acid (CGA), quercetin (QUE) and salicylic acid (SA). 4-HBA and CGA followed the predictions of ODH. QUE followed an inverse tendency. SA did not show any tendency related either with the position of the cladode or the treatment (light vs. shade) however, its concentration was positively correlated with the concentration of 4-HBA. As we detected SA only in a low proportion of cladodes and 4-HBA in all cladodes, we hypothesize the conversion of the latter metabolite to the former one. Contrary to ODH, CGA presented lower concentrations in apical than in basal cladodes when co-occurred with SAL, and QUE was transferred from apical (younger) to basal (older) cladodes. In this study, we found contradictions in the premises and outcomes of both the Resource Availability Hypothesis (RAH) and the ODH, suggesting that a new hypothesis concerning the plant defense against stress factors should be proposed.

Parental feeding decisions in dunnocks from a resource availability perspective: assessing the role of nestling tongue spots and body size

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Esteban Lara ◽  
Benedikt Holtmann ◽  
Eduardo S. A. Santos ◽  
Shinichi Nakagawa
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Ecological Perspective ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Feeding Patterns ◽  
Parental Feeding ◽  
Resource Availability Hypothesis ◽  
Allocation Decisions

A recent comparative study found that when resources are limited, parents primarily allocate food to superior nestlings, whereas when resources are abundant, parents evenly allocate food to all nestlings, putting forward what we refer to as the resource availability hypothesis (RAH). This ecological perspective adds valuable insights to the two classical hypotheses, sexual conflict and parent–offspring conflict, that explain the diversity of feeding patterns observed in nature. We investigated the parental allocation decisions between monogamous pairs and polyandrous trios of dunnocks. We first assessed whether the number of spots on the tongues of nestlings signals condition to the breeding parents. We then explored the RAH in an intra-specific context. We found evidence to suggest that the number of nestling tongue spots signals condition to breeding parents. We also found that monogamous and polyandrous females and polyandrous males prioritized nestlings in better condition, yet monogamous males fed nestlings evenly. This finding is consistent with the RAH in our population if monogamous males secure more resources due to their superior quality, thus resulting in the even feeding of nestlings. Another explanation for the observed parental feeding decisions that is indirectly associated with the RAH is sexual conflict (the uncertainty of paternity). Finally, we found that an assumption regarding feeding patterns in dunnocks that was established in another population was not fulfilled here; thus, it is worth noting that testing assumptions is a vital step towards assessing the generality of former findings, paving the way to credible scientific practice.

scholarly journals Grasses and the resource availability hypothesis: the importance of silica-based defences

2007 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 414-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
FERGUS P. MASSEY ◽  
A. ROLAND ENNOS ◽  
SUE E. HARTLEY
Keyword(s):  
Resource Availability ◽  
Resource Availability Hypothesis

Fertility and the Food Quality of Wetland Plants: A Test of the Resource Availability Hypothesis

Oikos ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 373 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. McCanny ◽  
P. A. Keddy ◽  
T. J. Arnason ◽  
C. L. Gaudet ◽  
D. R. J. Moore ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Quality ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Wetland Plants ◽  
Resource Availability Hypothesis

Resource availability hypothesis of plant antiherbivore defence tested in a South African savanna ecosystem

Nature ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 340 (6230) ◽  
pp. 227-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Bryant ◽  
P. J. Kuropat ◽  
S. M. Cooper ◽  
K. Frisby ◽  
N. Owen-Smith
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
African Savanna ◽  
Resource Availability Hypothesis ◽  
Antiherbivore Defence

scholarly journals Tolerance to herbivory and the resource availability hypothesis

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 20170120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernesto Gianoli ◽  
Cristian Salgado-Luarte
Keyword(s):  
Resource Availability ◽  
Plant Defence ◽  
Plant Tolerance ◽  
Leaf Lifespan ◽  
Leaf Toughness ◽  
Fast Growing ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Resource Availability Hypothesis ◽  
Slow Growing ◽  
Fast Growing Species

The resource availability hypothesis (RAH), the most successful theory explaining plant defence patterns, predicts that defence investment is related to the relative growth rate (RGR) of plant species, which is associated with habitat quality. Thus, fast-growing species should show lower resistance than slow-growing species, which would lead fast growers to sustain higher herbivory rates, but the fitness consequences of herbivory would be greater for slow growers. The latter is often assumed but rarely tested. In a temperate rainforest, we tested the expected pattern of tolerance to herbivory derived from the RAH: that fast-growing species should be more tolerant than slow-growing species. We also evaluated whether other plant features covary with RGR (leaf lifespan, shade tolerance and leaf toughness) and thus could also contribute to the patterns of tolerance to herbivory. As expected, seedlings from tree species with higher RGR showed greater tolerance to herbivory. Among the three plant features included, only leaf lifespan showed a significant association with RGR, but RGR was the best predictor of tolerance. We argue that plant tolerance to herbivory must be evaluated to properly verify the assumptions of the RAH.

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