Genetic and demographic founder effects have long-term fitness consequences for colonising populations

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 436-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianna Szűcs ◽  
Brett A. Melbourne ◽  
Ty Tuff ◽  
Christopher Weiss-Lehman ◽  
Ruth A. Hufbauer
Keyword(s):  
Founder Effects ◽  
Fitness Consequences

scholarly journals Nestling telomere shortening, but not telomere length, reflects developmental stress and predicts survival in wild birds

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1785) ◽  
pp. 20133287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelle J. Boonekamp ◽  
G. A. Mulder ◽  
H. Martijn Salomons ◽  
Cor Dijkstra ◽  
Simon Verhulst
Keyword(s):  
Telomere Length ◽  
Brood Size ◽  
Developmental Stress ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Telomere Shortening ◽  
Developmental Effects ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Developmental Conditions ◽  
Fledgling Mass

Developmental stressors often have long-term fitness consequences, but linking offspring traits to fitness prospects has remained a challenge. Telomere length predicts mortality in adult birds, and may provide a link between developmental conditions and fitness prospects. Here, we examine the effects of manipulated brood size on growth, telomere dynamics and post-fledging survival in free-living jackdaws. Nestlings in enlarged broods achieved lower mass and lost 21% more telomere repeats relative to nestlings in reduced broods, showing that developmental stress accelerates telomere shortening. Adult telomere length was positively correlated with their telomere length as nestling ( r = 0.83). Thus, an advantage of long telomeres in nestlings is carried through to adulthood. Nestling telomere shortening predicted post-fledging survival and recruitment independent of manipulation and fledgling mass. This effect was strong, with a threefold difference in recruitment probability over the telomere shortening range. By contrast, absolute telomere length was neither affected by brood size manipulation nor related to survival. We conclude that telomere loss, but not absolute telomere length, links developmental conditions to subsequent survival and suggest that telomere shortening may provide a key to unravelling the physiological causes of developmental effects on fitness.

scholarly journals Long-term fitness consequences of early conditions in the kittiwake

2003 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuelle Cam ◽  
Jean-Yves Monnat ◽  
James E. Hines
Keyword(s):  
Fitness Consequences

Genetic Considerations in Plant Ecological Restoration

Ecology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danny J. Gustafson ◽  
Alexis Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Ecological Restoration ◽  
Plant Material ◽  
Small Population ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Outbreeding Depression ◽  
Founder Effects ◽  
Plant Materials ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Seed Provenance

Ecological restoration is most commonly described as the process of aiding in the recovery of a damaged or destroyed system. In many cases, restoration may not be possible when self-sustaining populations, functions, and trajectories cannot be maintained due to the type of disturbance sustained by a site; in these cases, revegetation or remediation are more achievable goals. The definition of ecological restoration has been expanded to incorporate scientific inquiry into the process of the recovery of a natural range of ecosystem composition, structure, and dynamics. Ecological restoration research spans different levels of organization from genes to ecosystems. Genetic considerations are fundamental to the success of ecological restoration, and considerations of this issue will impact choices from seed source selection to genetic control of ecosystem services. A major decision for restorationists is the use of local versus nonlocal plant material, as well as the mixing of source populations; ideally, these choices can be based on sound population genetic, ecological, and evolutionary theory research. Ultimately, selection of plant material to be used in ecological restoration is driven by the specific project goals, availability and quality of plant materials, site conditions, and scale of the project. Beyond the local versus nonlocal selection issue, genetic issues related to small population dynamics, gene flow in the modern landscape, and gene expression affecting community structure and ecosystem functions can affect the success of ecological restoration activities. This article focuses primarily on plants; however, issues related to genetics of small populations (inbreeding and outbreeding depression, founder effects, and fitness consequences of reduced genetic variation) are important considerations for animal species too. The readings contained within this bibliography include: Ecotypic Variation, Seed Provenance for Restoration, Seed Transfer Zones for Restoration, Seed Provenance for Revegetation, Life History Traits, Moving beyond Neutral Markers, Inbreeding Depression, Outbreeding Depression, Founder Effects, Fitness Consequences of Reduced Genetic Variation, Community and Landscape Genetics, Testing Genotypic Effects on Community and Ecosystem Processes, Evaluating Success, and Genetic Composition and Diversity in Restored Populations.

scholarly journals Does vegetation change over 28 years affect habitat use and reproductive success?

The Auk ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 137 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Fierro-Calderón ◽  
Thomas E Martin
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Habitat Use ◽  
Nest Survival ◽  
Selection Function ◽  
Patch Use ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Long Term Changes ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Individuals should prefer and use habitats that confer high fitness, but habitat use is not always adaptive. Vegetation in natural landscapes changes gradually and the ability of species to adaptively adjust their habitat use to long-term changes is largely unstudied. We studied nest patch and territory use over 28 yr in Orange-crowned Warblers (Oreothlypis celata) in a system that has undergone natural long-term changes in vegetation. Abundance of maple (Acer grandidentatum), its preferred nesting habitat, gradually declined from 1987 to 2015. We examined whether habitat use and its fitness consequences changed as the availability of preferred habitat decreased. We used resource selection function models to determine changes over time in the probability of using a nest patch given available patches, and the probability of using a territory given available territories. We estimated nest survival to evaluate changes over time in the fitness consequences of nest patch use. We also compared habitat use (nest patch and territory) and fitness (nest survival) between areas with naturally reduced abundance of maple and experimentally increased abundance of maple (fenced areas). Nest patch use depended on maple abundance and did not change drastically across 28 yr, even though the availability of preferred maple patches decreased over time. In contrast, nest survival tended to decrease over time. We did not see differences in nest patch use and nest survival between unfenced and fenced areas, unlike territory use, which increased with the abundance of maple in fenced areas and decreased in unfenced areas. Our study depicts one example of relatively unchanged habitat use in the face of decreased availability of preferred vegetation across years, with a resulting decrease in reproductive success. Investigating changes in habitat use and fitness consequences for animals exposed to long-term habitat change is necessary to understand adaptive behavioral responses.

scholarly journals Exploitative leaders incite intergroup warfare in a social mammal

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (47) ◽  
pp. 29759-29766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rufus A. Johnstone ◽  
Michael A. Cant ◽  
Dominic Cram ◽  
Faye J. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Female Group ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Model Predictions ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Mean Fitness ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Intergroup Conflicts ◽  
Term Data

Collective conflicts among humans are widespread, although often highly destructive. A classic explanation for the prevalence of such warfare in some human societies is leadership by self-serving individuals that reap the benefits of conflict while other members of society pay the costs. Here, we show that leadership of this kind can also explain the evolution of collective violence in certain animal societies. We first extend the classic hawk−dove model of the evolution of animal aggression to consider cases in which a subset of individuals within each group may initiate fights in which all group members become involved. We show that leadership of this kind, when combined with inequalities in the payoffs of fighting, can lead to the evolution of severe intergroup aggression, with negative consequences for population mean fitness. We test our model using long-term data from wild banded mongooses, a species characterized by frequent intergroup conflicts that have very different fitness consequences for male and female group members. The data show that aggressive encounters between groups are initiated by females, who gain fitness benefits from mating with extragroup males in the midst of battle, whereas the costs of fighting are borne chiefly by males. In line with the model predictions, the result is unusually severe levels of intergroup violence. Our findings suggest that the decoupling of leaders from the costs that they incite amplifies the destructive nature of intergroup conflict.

scholarly journals Are elder siblings helpers or competitors? Antagonistic fitness effects of sibling interactions in humans

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1750) ◽  
pp. 20122313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aïda Nitsch ◽  
Charlotte Faurie ◽  
Virpi Lummaa
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Sexual Maturity ◽  
Life History Stage ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Fitness Effects ◽  
Sibling Interactions ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Fitness Measures

Determining the fitness consequences of sibling interactions is pivotal for understanding the evolution of family living, but studies investigating them across lifetime are lacking. We used a large demographic dataset on preindustrial humans from Finland to study the effect of elder siblings on key life-history traits. The presence of elder siblings improved the chances of younger siblings surviving to sexual maturity, suggesting that despite a competition for parental resources, they may help rearing their younger siblings. After reaching sexual maturity however, same-sex elder siblings' presence was associated with reduced reproductive success in the focal individual, indicating the existence of competition among same-sex siblings. Overall, lifetime fitness was reduced by same-sex elder siblings' presence and increased by opposite-sex elder siblings' presence. Our study shows opposite effects of sibling interactions depending on the life-history stage, and highlights the need for using long-term fitness measures to understand the selection pressures acting on sibling interactions.

scholarly journals Early experience and parent-of-origin-specific effects influence female reproductive success in mice

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinmar Hager ◽  
Rufus A Johnstone
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Female Reproductive Success ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Mixed Litter ◽  
Offspring Growth ◽  
Parent Of Origin

Recent studies on mammals investigating parent-of-origin-specific effects such as genomic imprinting and maternal effects have demonstrated their impact on short-term measures of fitness, for example offspring growth. However, the long-term fitness consequences of parent-of-origin-specific effects and their role outside the immediate mother–offspring interaction remain largely unexplored. Here, we show that female mice mated to males that inherited the same set of paternal and maternal genes as themselves have a higher reproductive success than females mated to males of reciprocal genotype. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the early social environment experienced by an individual influences its reproductive success. Females raised with unrelated siblings in a mixed litter had a subsequent lower reproductive success than those that were fostered together with all their biological siblings in unmixed litters. Our results highlight the important influence of parent-of-origin-specific effects and conditions in early development on long-term reproductive success in mammals and suggest that parent-of-origin-specific effects may provide the underlying mechanism for beneficial coadaptation between genotypes, for example, in mate choice.

scholarly journals Effects of handling and short-term captivity: a multi-behaviour approach using red sea urchins, Mesocentrotus franciscanus

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aneesh P.H. Bose ◽  
Daniel Zayonc ◽  
Nikolaos Avrantinis ◽  
Natasha Ficzycz ◽  
Jonathan Fischer-Rush ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Red Sea ◽  
Sea Urchins ◽  
Abundant Species ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Induced Stress ◽  
Aggregation Behaviour ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Term Monitoring

Understanding the effects of captivity-induced stress on wild-caught animals after their release back into the wild is critical for the long-term success of relocation and reintroduction programs. To date, most of the research on captivity stress has focused on vertebrates, with far less attention paid to invertebrates. Here, we examine the effect of short-term captivity (i.e., up to four days) on self-righting, aggregation, and predator-escape behaviours in wild-caught red sea urchins, Mesocentrotus franciscanus, after their release back into the wild. Aggregation behaviour, which has been linked to feeding in sea urchins, was not affected by handling or captivity. In contrast, the sea urchins that had been handled and released immediately, as well as those that were handled and held captive, took longer to right themselves and were poorer at fleeing from predators than wild, unhandled sea urchins. These results indicate that handling rather than captivity impaired these behaviours in the short term. The duration of captivity did not influence the sea urchin behaviours examined. Longer-term monitoring is needed to establish what the fitness consequences of these short-term behavioural changes might be. Our study nevertheless highlights the importance of considering a suite of responses when examining the effects of capture and captivity. Our findings, which are based on a locally abundant species, can inform translocation efforts aimed at bolstering populations of ecologically similar but depleted invertebrate species to retain or restore important ecosystem functions.

scholarly journals Artificial size selection experiment reveals telomere length dynamics and fitness consequences in a wild passerine

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Pepke ◽  
Thomas Kvalnes ◽  
Bernt Rønning ◽  
Henrik Jensen ◽  
Winnie Boner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Telomere Length ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Disruptive Selection ◽  
Size Selection ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Selection For

Changes in telomere dynamics could underlie life-history trade-offs among growth, size and longevity, but our ability to quantify such mechanistic processes in natural, unmanipulated populations is limited. We investigated how 4 years of artificial selection for either larger or smaller body size affected early-life telomere length in two insular populations of wild house sparrows. A negative correlation between telomere length and structural size was evident under both selection regimes. The study also revealed that male sparrows had longer telomeres than females, after controlling for size, and there was a significant negative effect of harsh weather conditions on telomere length. The long-term fitness consequences of these changes in early-life telomere length induced by the artificial size selection were explored over a period of 11 years. These analyses indicated disruptive selection on telomere length because both short and long early-life telomere length tended to be associated with the lowest mortality rates and highest life expectancy. There was also weak evidence for a negative association between telomere length and annual reproductive success, but only in the population where body size was increased experimentally. Our results suggest that natural selection for optimal body size in wild animals will affect early-life telomere length during growth, which is known to be linked to longevity in birds, but also that the importance of telomeres for long-term somatic maintenance and fitness is complex in a wild bird species.

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