scholarly journals Song sparrows Melospiza melodia have a home-field advantage in defending against sympatric malarial parasites

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 160216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanina Sarquis-Adamson ◽  
Elizabeth A. MacDougall-Shackleton
Keyword(s):  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Breeding Sites ◽  
Song Sparrows ◽  
Capture Site ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Home Field Advantage ◽  
Fitness Consequence ◽  
Host Parasite

Hosts and parasites interact on both evolutionary and ecological timescales. The outcome of these interactions, specifically whether hosts are more resistant to their local parasites (sympatric) than to parasites from another location (allopatric), is likely to affect the spread of infectious disease and the fitness consequences of host dispersal. We conducted a cross-infection experiment to determine whether song sparrows ( Melospiza melodia ) have an advantage in dealing with sympatric parasites. We captured birds from two breeding sites 437 km apart, and inoculated them with avian malaria ( Plasmodium spp.) cultured either from their capture site or from the other site. Infection risk was lower for birds exposed to sympatric than to allopatric Plasmodium lineages, suggesting that song sparrows may have a home-field advantage in defending against local parasite strains. This pattern was more pronounced at one capture site than at the other, consistent with mosaic models of host–parasite interactions. Home-field advantage may arise from evolutionary processes, whereby host populations become adapted to their local parasites, and/or from ecological interactions, whereby host individuals develop resistance to the local parasites through previous immune exposure. Our findings suggest that greater susceptibility to novel parasites may represent a fitness consequence of natal dispersal.

scholarly journals Bird Song Learning is Mutually Beneficial for Tutee and Tutor

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Beecher ◽  
Çağlar Akçay ◽  
S. Elizabeth Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Field Study ◽  
Bird Song ◽  
Song Learning ◽  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mutual Benefit ◽  
Young Bird ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Song Sparrows ◽  
Fitness Consequences

AbstractSong learning is generally assumed to be beneficial for a young songbird, but merely incidental, without costs or benefits, for the older song ‘tutors’. In the present study we contrast two mutually exclusive hypotheses about the tutor/tutee relationship: (1) that it is cooperative, or at least mutually tolerant, with tutor and tutee mutually benefiting from their relationship, vs. (2) that it is competitive, with tutor and tutee competing over territory, so that one or the other suffers negative fitness consequences of their relationship. In a field study of three consecutive cohorts of song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) we determined the older bird (primary tutor) from whom the young bird (tutee) learned most of his songs, and how long tutee and primary tutor survived subsequently. We found that the more songs a tutee learns from his primary tutor, the longer their mutual survival on their respective territories. This study provides the first evidence of a mutual benefit of bird song learning and teaching in nature.

scholarly journals Aggressiveness, reliable signaling and survival in a wild songbird

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Çağlar Akçay ◽  
S. Elizabeth Campbell ◽  
Michael D. Beecher
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
Honest Signaling ◽  
Major Question ◽  
Aggressive Interactions ◽  
Song Sparrows ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
High Aggression ◽  
Reliable Signaling

The evolution and maintenance of honest or reliable signaling has been a major question in evolutionary biology. The question is especially puzzling for a particular class of signals used in aggressive interactions: threat signals. Here we report a study on song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) in which we assayed males with playbacks in their territories to quantify their aggressiveness and aggressive signaling levels and asked whether these affect their survival on territory. We found that the effect on survival of residual signaling (signaling above or below the level predicted by their aggressiveness) depended on aggression levels such that among males with low aggression, those with higher residual signaling scores had higher survival. The residual signaling did not have a strong effect among high aggression males. Aggressiveness by itself did not have an effect on survival. These results present a first step in understanding the fitness consequences of honest signaling in aggressive contexts.

scholarly journals Resolving the conundrum of inbreeding depression but no inbreeding avoidance: Estimating sex-specific selection on inbreeding by song sparrows (Melospiza melodia)

Evolution ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (11) ◽  
pp. 2846-2861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane M. Reid ◽  
Peter Arcese ◽  
Greta Bocedi ◽  
A. Bradley Duthie ◽  
Matthew E. Wolak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inbreeding Depression ◽  
Inbreeding Avoidance ◽  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
Song Sparrows

Husbandry of wild-caught song sparrows (Melospiza melodia )

Zoo Biology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 206-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori Smith ◽  
Sara Hallager ◽  
Erin Kendrick ◽  
Katharine Hope ◽  
Raymond M. Danner
Keyword(s):  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
Song Sparrows

scholarly journals Fitness Correlates of Song Repertoire Size in Free‐Living Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia)

2005 ◽  
Vol 165 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane M. Reid ◽  
Peter Arcese ◽  
Alice L. E. V. Cassidy ◽  
Sara M. Hiebert ◽  
James N. M. Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
Repertoire Size ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Song Repertoire ◽  
Song Sparrows

scholarly journals Long-term maternal effect on offspring immune response in song sparrows Melospiza melodia

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane M Reid ◽  
Peter Arcese ◽  
Lukas F Keller ◽  
Dennis Hasselquist
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Parasitic Infection ◽  
Antibody Responses ◽  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Humoral Immune ◽  
Song Sparrows

Knowledge of the causes of variation in host immunity to parasitic infection and the time-scales over which variation persists, is integral to predicting the evolutionary and epidemiological consequences of host–parasite interactions. It is clear that offspring immunity can be influenced by parental immune experience, for example, reflecting transfer of antibodies from mothers to young offspring. However, it is less clear whether such parental effects persist or have functional consequences over longer time-scales, linking a parent's previous immune experience to future immune responsiveness in fully grown offspring. We used free-living song sparrows ( Melospiza melodia ) to quantify long-term effects of parental immune experience on offspring immune response. We experimentally vaccinated parents with a novel antigen and tested whether parental vaccination influenced the humoral antibody response mounted by fully grown offspring hatched the following year. Parental vaccination did not influence offspring baseline antibody titres. However, offspring of vaccinated mothers mounted substantially stronger antibody responses than offspring of unvaccinated mothers. Antibody responses did not differ between offspring of vaccinated and unvaccinated fathers. These data demonstrate substantial long-term effects of maternal immune experience on the humoral immune response of fully grown offspring in free-living birds.

Geographic variation in the underwater vocalizations of Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddelli) from Palmer Peninsula and McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

1983 ◽  
Vol 61 (10) ◽  
pp. 2203-2212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeànette A. Thomas ◽  
Ian Stirling
Keyword(s):  
Mating System ◽  
Weddell Seal ◽  
Mirror Image ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mcmurdo Sound ◽  
Breeding Sites ◽  
Weddell Seals ◽  
Antarctic Seals ◽  
Geographic Differences ◽  
Polygynous Mating System

The Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddelli) is one of the most vocal pinnipeds. The repertoires of subice vocalizations of Weddell seals recorded at Palmer Peninsula and at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, are different. Although seals at both sites give some of the same vocalizations, there are subtle spectral and temporal differences. In addition each population has unique vocalizations which are not heard at the other site. At Palmer Peninsula, there are several usage characteristics not exhibited at McMurdo Sound, such as mirror-image vocalization pairs and vocalization trios. Weddell seals in McMurdo Sound make extensive use of nine auxiliary sounds, while the Peninsula repertoire has none. Factors which appear to have been important in the development of these geographic differences appear to include strong fidelity to breeding sites, a polygynous mating system, and learning. Geographically different vocal repertoires have potential for identifying discrete breeding stocks of Antarctic seals.

Linnaeus, Carl von (1707–78)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.F. Stevens
Keyword(s):  
Classification System ◽  
Natural System ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Divine Retribution ◽  
The World ◽  
Artificial Classification

Linnaeus was educated in Sweden, and became a doctor of medicine in Harderwijk, Holland, in 1735. He visited other European countries then, but he never left Sweden after his return in 1738. After practising as a physician in Stockholm, he moved to Uppsala University as professor of medicine and botany in 1741. He articulated four different but complementary ways of understanding nature – through two kinds of classification, and through what can be called developmental and functional/ecological interactions. Linnaeus is best known for his classificatory work, for which he received material from all over the world. His classificatory precepts are elaborated in the Philosophia botanica of 1751, an enlarged version of the 365 aphorisms of his Fundamenta botanica of 1735; the other aspects of his work are diffused through his writings. His artificial classification system, initially very popular, was replaced by the ’natural’ system, more slowly in botany than in zoology, and more slowly in England than in some other countries. Current biological nomenclature is based on his Species plantarum, edition 1 (for plants), and Systema naturae, edition 10 (for animals). His codification of botanical terms remains influential. Almost 200 dissertations, most written by Linnaeus, were defended by his students. In these and other less well-known works, including the unpublished Nemesis divina (Stories of Divine Retribution), he covered a wide range of subjects. Quinarian thinking is noticeable in Linnaeus’ work – there are five ranks in systems, five years’ growth in flowers – and in some of the occult works that he knew. He also shows a strong combinatorial bent and a tendency to draw close analogies between the parts of animals and plants.

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