scholarly journals Constraints on plastic responses to climate variation in red deer

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel H Nussey ◽  
Tim H Clutton-Brock ◽  
Steve D Albon ◽  
Josephine Pemberton ◽  
Loeske E.B Kruuk
Keyword(s):  
Life History Traits ◽  
Red Deer ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Spring Temperature ◽  
Ecological Conditions ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Additional Level ◽  
Plastic Responses ◽  
Phenotypic Responses

Influences of climate on life history traits in natural populations are well documented. However, the implications of between-individual variation in phenotypic plasticity underlying observed trait–environment relationships are rarely considered due to the large, long-term datasets required for such analysis. Studies typically present correlations of annual trait means with climate or assume that individual phenotypic responses are constant. Here, we examine this additional level of variation and show that, in a red deer population on the Isle of Rum, Scotland, changes in climate generate changes in phenotype only amongst individuals who have experienced favourable ecological conditions. Examination of relationships between offspring birth weight and spring temperature within the lifetimes of individual females revealed that the tendency to respond to climate declined as the population density experienced early in life increased. The presence of such systematic variation in individual plasticity is rarely documented in the wild, and has important implications for our understanding of the environmental dependencies of traits under varying ecological conditions.

scholarly journals How social behaviour and life-history traits change with age and in the year prior to death in female yellow-bellied marmots

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1823) ◽  
pp. 20190745
Author(s):  
Svenja B. Kroeger ◽  
Daniel T. Blumstein ◽  
Julien G. A. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Social Behaviours

Studies in natural populations are essential to understand the evolutionary ecology of senescence and terminal allocation. While there are an increasing number of studies investigating late-life variation in different life-history traits of wild populations, little is known about these patterns in social behaviour. We used long-term individual based data on yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer) to quantify how affiliative social behaviours and different life-history traits vary with age and in the last year of life, and how patterns compare between the two. We found that some social behaviours and all life-history traits varied with age, whereas terminal last year of life effects were only observed in life-history traits. Our results imply that affiliative social behaviours do not act as a mechanism to adjust allocation among traits when close to death, and highlight the importance of adopting an integrative approach, studying late-life variation and senescence across multiple different traits, to allow the identification of potential trade-offs.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Ageing and sociality: why, when and how does sociality change ageing patterns?’

scholarly journals Older mothers produce more successful daughters

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (9) ◽  
pp. 4809-4814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svenja B. Kroeger ◽  
Daniel T. Blumstein ◽  
Kenneth B. Armitage ◽  
Jane M. Reid ◽  
Julien G. A. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Substantial Variation ◽  
Older Mothers ◽  
Lower Elevation ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Term Data

Annual reproductive success and senescence patterns vary substantially among individuals in the wild. However, it is still seldom considered that senescence may not only affect an individual but also affect age-specific reproductive success in its offspring, generating transgenerational reproductive senescence. We used long-term data from wild yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer) living in two different elevational environments to quantify age-specific reproductive success of daughters born to mothers differing in age. Contrary to prediction, daughters born to older mothers had greater annual reproductive success on average than daughters born to younger mothers, and this translated into greater lifetime reproductive success. However, in the favorable lower elevation environment, daughters born to older mothers also had greater age-specific decreases in annual reproductive success. In the harsher higher elevation environment on the other hand, daughters born to older mothers tended to die before reaching ages at which such senescent decreases could be observed. Our study highlights the importance of incorporating environment-specific transgenerational parent age effects on adult offspring age-specific life-history traits to fully understand the substantial variation observed in senescence patterns in wild populations.

scholarly journals Extirpation and reintroduction of the Corsican red deer Cervus elaphus corsicanus in Corsica

Oryx ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 488-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Kidjo ◽  
Gérard Feracci ◽  
Eric Bideau ◽  
Georges Gonzalez ◽  
César Mattéi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cervus Elaphus ◽  
Red Deer ◽  
Captive Breeding ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
Natural Choice ◽  
Sardinian Population ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Nature Park ◽  
Regional Nature Park

AbstractThe Endangered Corsican red deer Cervus elaphus corsicanus was extirpated from Corsica in the early 1970s, at which time the Sardinian population fell to <250 individuals. The Sardinian authorities agreed to protect this subspecies and to secure its reintroduction in Corsica, a natural choice, considering ethological and historical descriptions. Since the beginning of 1985, when the first deer destined for captive breeding and eventual reintroduction arrived in Corsica, the population increased from 13 Sardinian founders to 106 captive animals under constant monitoring in three enclosures (Quenza, Casabianda and Ania di Fium'Orbu). The sites of Quenza, Chisà and Santo Pietro di Venaco were selected by the Regional Nature Park of Corsica for the reintroduction into the wild that began in 1998. Currently the size of the whole Corsican population is c. 250 individuals. These deer are still closely monitored and studied, both in enclosures and in the wild, to secure the long-term conservation of this subspecies. The Corsican and Sardinian populations together now total slightly >1,000, and the subspecies could therefore be downgraded to Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List.

scholarly journals Spatio-Temporal Ecological and Evolutionary Dynamics in Natural Butterfly Populations (2015 Field Season)

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 29-32
Author(s):  
Zachariah Gompert ◽  
Lauren Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Molecular Evolution ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variation ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Long Term Studies

The study of evolution in natural populations has advanced our understanding of the origin and maintenance of biological diversity. For example, long term studies of wild populations indicate that natural selection can cause rapid and dramatic changes in traits, but that in some cases these evolutionary changes are quickly reversed when periodic variation in weather patterns or the biotic environment cause the optimal trait value to change (e.g., Reznick et al. 1997, Grant and Grant 2002). In fact, spatial and temporal variation in the strength and nature of natural selection could explain the high levels of genetic variation found in many natural populations (Gillespie 1994, Siepielski et al. 2009). Long term studies of evolution in the wild could also be informative for biodiversity conservation and resource management, because, for example, data on short term evolutionary responses to annual fluctuations in temperature or rainfall could be used to predict longer term evolution in response to directional climate change. Most previous research on evolution in the wild has considered one or a few observable traits or genes (e.g., Kapan 2001, Grant and Grant 2002, Barrett et al. 2008). We believe that more general conclusions regarding the rate and causes of evolutionary change in the wild and selection’s contribution to the maintenance of genetic variation could be obtained by studying genome-wide molecular evolution in a suite of natural populations. Thus, in 2012 we began a long term study of genome-wide molecular evolution in a series of natural butterfly populations in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA). This study will allow us to quantify the contribution of environment-dependent natural selection to evolution in these butterfly populations and determine whether selection consistently favors the same alleles across space and through time.

scholarly journals Spatio-Temporal Evolutionary Dynamics in Natural Butterfly Populations (2012 Field Season)

2012 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 73-76
Author(s):  
Zachariah Gompert ◽  
Lauren Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Molecular Evolution ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variation ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Long Term Studies

The study of evolution in natural populations has advanced our understanding of the origin and maintenance of biological diversity. For example, long term studies of wild populations indicate that natural selection can cause rapid and dramatic changes in traits, but that in some cases these evolutionary changes are quickly reversed when periodic variation in weather patterns or the biotic environment cause the optimal trait value to change (e.g., Reznick et al. 1997; Grant and Grant 2002). In fact, spatial and temporal variation in the strength and nature of natural selection could explain the high levels of genetic variation found in many natural populations (Gillespie 1994; Siepielski et al. 2009). Long term studies of evolution in the wild could also be informative for biodiversity conservation and resource management, because, for example, data on short term evolutionary responses to annual fluctuations in temperature or rainfall could be used to predict longer term evolution in response to directional climate change. Most previous research on evolution in the wild has considered one or a few observable traits or genes (Kapan 2001; Grant and Grant 2002; Barrett et al. 2008). We believe that more general conclusions regarding the rate and causes of evolutionary change in the wild and selection’s contribution to the maintenance of genetic variation could be obtained by studying genome-wide molecular evolution in a suite of natural populations. Thus, we have begun a long term study of genome-wide molecular evolution in a series of natural butterfly populations in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA). This study will allow us to quantify the contribution of environment-dependent natural selection to evolution in these butterfly populations and determine whether selection consistently favors the same alleles across space and through time.

scholarly journals Impact of interspecific relations between native red deer (Cervus elaphus) and introduced sika deer (Cervus nippon) on their rutting season in the Doupovské hory Mts.

2014 ◽  
Vol 60 (No. 7) ◽  
pp. 272-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Macháček ◽  
S. Dvořák ◽  
M. Ježek ◽  
D. Zahradník
Keyword(s):  
Cervus Elaphus ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Red Deer ◽  
Sika Deer ◽  
Military Training ◽  
Cervus Nippon ◽  
Data Set ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
The Military

The behaviour of sika and red deer during the rutting season is highly variable in relation to vocalization, habitat preference during the rut, and onset and termination of rutting. The red deer is a native species in Central Europe, but the areas where it lives in sympatry with the introduced sika deer have been increasing in the last three decades. Such situation can be found in the Doupovsk&eacute; hory Mts., where sika deer has been intensively spreading. Hybridization between the two species and changes in behaviour are the most important problems. In this study we prove the shift in the rutting period shown by both species. To evaluate the shift in the rutting season, we used a very extensive long-term data set on deer shot within the Military Training Area. These changes occur very slowly, however, and are very difficult to monitor and evaluate in the wild. Based on our results, the timing of the rutting season has converged at the mean rate of 0.62 day per year (rutting season starts later in the red deer and earlier in the sika deer). &nbsp;

scholarly journals Phenotypic plasticity in evolutionary rescue experiments

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1610) ◽  
pp. 20120089 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis-Miguel Chevin ◽  
Romain Gallet ◽  
Richard Gomulkiewicz ◽  
Robert D. Holt ◽  
Simon Fellous
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evolution ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Genetic Evolution ◽  
Controlled Experiments ◽  
Stressful Environment ◽  
Evolutionary Rescue ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Phenotypic Responses

Population persistence in a new and stressful environment can be influenced by the plastic phenotypic responses of individuals to this environment, and by the genetic evolution of plasticity itself. This process has recently been investigated theoretically, but testing the quantitative predictions in the wild is challenging because (i) there are usually not enough population replicates to deal with the stochasticity of the evolutionary process, (ii) environmental conditions are not controlled, and (iii) measuring selection and the inheritance of traits affecting fitness is difficult in natural populations. As an alternative, predictions from theory can be tested in the laboratory with controlled experiments. To illustrate the feasibility of this approach, we briefly review the literature on the experimental evolution of plasticity, and on evolutionary rescue in the laboratory, paying particular attention to differences and similarities between microbes and multicellular eukaryotes. We then highlight a set of questions that could be addressed using this framework, which would enable testing the robustness of theoretical predictions, and provide new insights into areas that have received little theoretical attention to date.

scholarly journals Evolution of quantitative traits in the wild: mind the ecology

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1552) ◽  
pp. 2431-2438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josephine M. Pemberton
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Genetics ◽  
Quantitative Traits ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Response To Selection ◽  
Genetic Response ◽  
Quantitative Genetic ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Gradient Variation

Recent advances in the quantitative genetics of traits in wild animal populations have created new interest in whether natural selection, and genetic response to it, can be detected within long-term ecological studies. However, such studies have re-emphasized the fact that ecological heterogeneity can confound our ability to infer selection on genetic variation and detect a population's response to selection by conventional quantitative genetics approaches. Here, I highlight three manifestations of this issue: counter gradient variation, environmentally induced covariance between traits and the correlated effects of a fluctuating environment. These effects are symptomatic of the oversimplifications and strong assumptions of the breeder's equation when it is applied to natural populations. In addition, methods to assay genetic change in quantitative traits have overestimated the precision with which change can be measured. In the future, a more conservative approach to inferring quantitative genetic response to selection, or genomic approaches allowing the estimation of selection intensity and responses to selection at known quantitative trait loci, will provide a more precise view of evolution in ecological time.

scholarly journals Spatio-temporal Ecological and Evolutionary Dynamics in Natural Butterfly Populations (2013 Field Season)

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 146-149
Author(s):  
Zachariah Gompert ◽  
Lauren Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Molecular Evolution ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variation ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Long Term Studies

The study of evolution in natural populations has advanced our understanding of the origin and maintenance of biological diversity. For example, long term studies of wild populations indicate that natural selection can cause rapid and dramatic changes in traits, but that in some cases these evolutionary changes are quickly reversed when periodic variation in weather patterns or the biotic environment cause the optimal trait value to change (e.g., Reznick et al. 1997, Grant and Grant 2002). In fact, spatial and temporal variation in the strength and nature of natural selection could explain the high levels of genetic variation found in many natural populations (Gillespie 1994, Siepielski et al. 2009). Long term studies of evolution in the wild could also be informative for biodiversity conservation and resource management, because, for example, data on short term evolutionary responses to annual fluctuations in temperature or rainfall could be used to predict longer term evolution in response to directional climate change. Most previous research on evolution in the wild has considered one or a few observable traits or genes (Kapan 2001, Grant and Grant 2002, Barrett et al. 2008). We believe that more general conclusions regarding the rate and causes of evolutionary change in the wild and selection’s contribution to the maintenance of genetic variation could be obtained by studying genome-wide molecular evolution in a suite of natural populations. Thus, we have begun a long term study of genome-wide molecular evolution in a series of natural butterfly populations in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA). This study will allow us to quantify the contribution of environment-dependent natural selection to evolution in these butterfly populations and determine whether selection consistently favors the same alleles across space and through time.

Prey tell: what quillback rockfish early life history traits reveal about their survival in encounters with juvenile coho salmon

2020 ◽  
Vol 650 ◽  
pp. 7-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
HW Fennie ◽  
S Sponaugle ◽  
EA Daly ◽  
RD Brodeur
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Coho Salmon ◽  
Larval Fish ◽  
Early Life History ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Otolith Microstructure Analysis ◽  
Pelagic Juvenile

Predation is a major source of mortality in the early life stages of fishes and a driving force in shaping fish populations. Theoretical, modeling, and laboratory studies have generated hypotheses that larval fish size, age, growth rate, and development rate affect their susceptibility to predation. Empirical data on predator selection in the wild are challenging to obtain, and most selective mortality studies must repeatedly sample populations of survivors to indirectly examine survivorship. While valuable on a population scale, these approaches can obscure selection by particular predators. In May 2018, along the coast of Washington, USA, we simultaneously collected juvenile quillback rockfish Sebastes maliger from both the environment and the stomachs of juvenile coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch. We used otolith microstructure analysis to examine whether juvenile coho salmon were age-, size-, and/or growth-selective predators of juvenile quillback rockfish. Our results indicate that juvenile rockfish consumed by salmon were significantly smaller, slower growing at capture, and younger than surviving (unconsumed) juvenile rockfish, providing direct evidence that juvenile coho salmon are selective predators on juvenile quillback rockfish. These differences in early life history traits between consumed and surviving rockfish are related to timing of parturition and the environmental conditions larval rockfish experienced, suggesting that maternal effects may substantially influence survival at this stage. Our results demonstrate that variability in timing of parturition and sea surface temperature leads to tradeoffs in early life history traits between growth in the larval stage and survival when encountering predators in the pelagic juvenile stage.

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