The evolution of intermittent breeding

Intermittent breeding is an important life-history strategy that has rarely been quantified in the wild and for which drivers remain unclear. It may be the result of a trade-off between survival and reproduction, with individuals skipping breeding when breeding conditions are below a certain threshold. Heterogeneity in individual quality can also lead to heterogeneity in intermittent breeding. We modelled survival, recruitment and breeding probability of the red-footed booby ( Sula sula ), using a 19 year mark–recapture dataset involving more than 11 000 birds. We showed that skipping breeding was more likely in El-Niño years, correlated with an increase in the local sea surface temperature, supporting the hypothesis that it may be partly an adaptive strategy of birds to face the trade-off between survival and reproduction owing to environmental constraints. We also showed that the age-specific probability of first breeding attempt was synchronized among different age-classes and higher in El-Niño years. This result suggested that pre-breeders may benefit from lowered competition with experienced breeders in years of high skipping probabilities.

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Now you see him, now you don't: experience, not age, is related to reproduction in kittiwakes

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2011.0189 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 278 (1721) ◽

pp. 3060-3066 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Marine Desprez ◽

Roger Pradel ◽

Emmanuelle Cam ◽

Jean-Yves Monnat ◽

Olivier Gimenez

Keyword(s):

Growth Rate ◽

Process Model ◽

Population Growth Rate ◽

Rissa Tridactyla ◽

Factors Influencing ◽

Important Constraint ◽

Wide Range ◽

In The Wild ◽

Intermittent Breeding

In long-lived species, individuals can skip reproduction. The proportion of breeders affects population growth rate and viability, there is a need to investigate the factors influencing intermittent breeding. The theory predicts that if lack of experience is an important constraint, breeding probabilities should increase with experience for individuals of the same age, whereas under the so-called restraint hypothesis, breeding probabilities should increase with age regardless of experience. However, because the probability of detecting individuals in the wild is generally less than 1, it is difficult to know exactly the number of previous breeding episodes (breeding experience). To cope with this issue, we developed a hidden process model to incorporate experience as a latent state possibly influencing the probability of breeding. Using a 22-year mark-recapture dataset involving 9970 individuals, we analysed simultaneously experience and age effects on breeding probabilities in the kittiwake ( Rissa tridactyla ). We did not detect an influence of age on adult breeding probabilities. We found that inexperienced birds breed less frequently than experienced birds. Our approach enables us to highlight the key role of experience on adults breeding probabilities and can be used for a wide range of organisms for which detection is less than 1.

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Adult survival and temporary emigration in the common toad

Canadian Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1139/z04-058 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 82 (6) ◽

pp. 859-872 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Thierry Frétey ◽

Emmanuelle Cam ◽

Bernard Le Garff ◽

Jean-Yves Monnat

Keyword(s):

Bufo Bufo ◽

Adult Survival ◽

First Order ◽

Temporary Emigration ◽

Lek Mating ◽

Capture Recapture ◽

The Common ◽

Intermittent Breeding ◽

Using Data ◽

The Individual

In vertebrates exhibiting intermittent breeding, breeding activity is a factor of critical importance in capture–recapture studies using data from individually marked animals. Nonbreeders can be absent from locations used by breeders and can be considered "temporary emigrants". We addressed the influence of sex on survival in common toads, Bufo bufo (L., 1758), using the Joly–Seber model and the existance of temporary emigration in male common toads by assessing trap-dependence and by conducting a robust design analysis. We addressed the hypothesis that the probability of the presence of an individual in the study area depends on the presence of the individual the year before (i.e., that transitions between reproductive states are a first-order Markovian process). Results provided support for the hypotheses of random temporary emigration, of sex-specific differences in survival, and of the presence of "transients" in males. Females had intermediate survival compared with the groups of "transients + residents" and "resident" males. Females had lower recapture probability under the Joly–Seber model, which may be interpreted as evidence of lower breeding probability or lower detectability of breeding females. Behaviour may explain this difference in that females may attend ponds for shorter periods. This may be common in species where females aggregate to seek fertilization and lay eggs in locations attended by males and in species with a "resource-based lek" mating system.

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