scholarly journals Helpers compensate for age-related declines in parental care and offspring survival in a cooperatively breeding bird

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martijn Hammers ◽  
Sjouke A. Kingma ◽  
Lotte A. van Boheemen ◽  
Alex Sparks ◽  
Terry Burke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alloparental Care ◽  
Offspring Survival ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Elderly Parents ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding ◽  
Provisioning Rate ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact

Offspring from elderly parents often have lower survival due to parental senescence. In cooperatively breeding species, where offspring care is shared between breeders and helpers, the alloparental care provided by helpers is predicted to mitigate the impact of parental senescence on offspring provisioning and, subsequently, offspring survival. We test this prediction using data from a long-term study on cooperatively breeding Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis). We find that the nestling-provisioning rate of female breeders declines with their age. Further, the total brood provisioning rate and the first-year survival probability of offspring decline progressively with age of the female breeder, but these declines are mitigated when helpers are present. This effect does not arise because individual helpers provide more care in response to the lower provisioning of older dominant females, but because older female breeders have recruited more helpers, thereby receiving more overall care for their brood. We do not find such effects for male breeders. These results indicate that alloparental care can alleviate the fitness costs of senescence for breeders, which suggests an interplay between age and cooperative breeding.

scholarly journals Helpers compensate for age‐related declines in parental care and offspring survival in a cooperatively breeding bird

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martijn Hammers ◽  
Sjouke A. Kingma ◽  
Lotte A. Boheemen ◽  
Alexandra M. Sparks ◽  
Terry Burke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Offspring Survival ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding

scholarly journals Helping in cooperatively breeding long-tailed tits: a test of Hamilton's rule

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1642) ◽  
pp. 20130565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben J. Hatchwell ◽  
Philippa R. Gullett ◽  
Mark J. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Social Evolution ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Alloparental Care ◽  
Hamilton’S Rule ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Inclusive Fitness Theory ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding ◽  
Helping Behaviour ◽  
Hamilton's Rule

Inclusive fitness theory provides the conceptual framework for our current understanding of social evolution, and empirical studies suggest that kin selection is a critical process in the evolution of animal sociality. A key prediction of inclusive fitness theory is that altruistic behaviour evolves when the costs incurred by an altruist ( c ) are outweighed by the benefit to the recipient ( b ), weighted by the relatedness of altruist to recipient ( r ), i.e. Hamilton's rule rb > c . Despite its central importance in social evolution theory, there have been relatively few empirical tests of Hamilton's rule, and hardly any among cooperatively breeding vertebrates, leading some authors to question its utility. Here, we use data from a long-term study of cooperatively breeding long-tailed tits Aegithalos caudatus to examine whether helping behaviour satisfies Hamilton's condition for the evolution of altruism. We show that helpers are altruistic because they incur survival costs through the provision of alloparental care for offspring. However, they also accrue substantial benefits through increased survival of related breeders and offspring, and despite the low average relatedness of helpers to recipients, these benefits of helping outweigh the costs incurred. We conclude that Hamilton's rule for the evolution of altruistic helping behaviour is satisfied in this species.

scholarly journals Life Course Pathways From Childhood SES to Age-Related Declines in Kidney Function Across Adulthood

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 832-832
Author(s):  
Agus Surachman ◽  
Alexis Santos ◽  
Jonathan Daw ◽  
Lacy Alexander ◽  
Christopher Coe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Kidney Function ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Strong Predictor ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
The United States ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Age is a strong predictor of declines in kidney function across adulthood. Using data from 2,045 adults (ages 25-84) in the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, we examined the life course pathways through which low parental education, through adult SES and body mass index (BMI), was associated with faster age-related declines in kidney function. Kidney function declines by 0.8 mL/min/1.73 m2 per year across adulthood. Lower parental education, through adult SES and BMI, was associated with higher kidney function among younger adults (Est = -1.61, SE = 0.62, 95%CI = -2.62, -0.60), but lower kidney function among older adults (Est = 0.93, SE = 0.51, 95%CI = 0.11, 1.79). The impact of early socioeconomic adversity on kidney function is initiated by kidney hyperfiltration in early adulthood and followed by faster declines and development into disease state in later adulthood.

scholarly journals Hot droughts compromise interannual survival across all group sizes in a cooperatively breeding bird

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda R. Bourne ◽  
Susan J. Cunningham ◽  
Claire N. Spottiswoode ◽  
Amanda R. Ridley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Body Mass Change ◽  
Species Vulnerability ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding ◽  
Dry Conditions ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIncreasingly harsh and unpredictable climate regimes are affecting animal populations around the world as climate change advances. One relatively unexplored aspect of species vulnerability to climate change is whether and to what extent responses to environmental stressors might be mitigated by variation in group size in social species. We used a 15-year dataset for a cooperatively-breeding bird, the southern pied babbler Turdoides bicolor, to determine the impact of temperature, rainfall, and group size on body mass change and interannual survival in both juveniles and adults. Hot and dry conditions were associated with reduced juvenile growth, mass loss in adults, and compromised survival between years in both juveniles (−86%) and adults (−60%). Individuals across all group sizes experienced similar effects of climatic conditions. Larger group sizes may not buffer individual group members against the impacts of hot and dry conditions, which are expected to increase in frequency and severity in future.

scholarly journals Do the ages of parents or helpers affect offspring fitness in a cooperatively breeding bird?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eve Cooper ◽  
Timothée Bonnet ◽  
Andrew Cockburn ◽  
Loeske E. B. Kruuk
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Population ◽  
Paternal Age ◽  
Juvenile Survival ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Offspring Performance ◽  
Offspring Fitness ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding ◽  
Age Related Changes

Age-related changes in either the phenotypes or genotypes of care-givers can impact juvenile performance. However, rarely in wild populations have germline and non-germline transgenerational effects of ageing been separately quantified. In cooperatively breeding animals, in addition to parental ages, the age of ‘helpers’ attending the nest may also impact juvenile performance. Using a wild population of superb fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus), we investigated the effects of maternal, paternal, and helper ages on three measures of offspring performance: weight as a nestling, juvenile survival, and recruitment to the breeding population, using up to 4538 offspring over 30 cohorts. A mother’s age at conception negatively affected her offspring’s performance, but mothers with a longer total lifespan had offspring with higher juvenile survival. We distinguished the effects of paternal germline versus paternal environment (for offspring sired extra-pair) as well as the combined effect of paternal germline and environment (for offspring sired within-pair). Neither the ages of the genetic or the cuckolded social father impacted extra-pair offspring performance, however, for offspring sired within-pair, there was a positive effect of paternal age on the juvenile survival. Offspring performance increased most strongly and consistently with the average age of helpers. Our analyses thus revealed multiple associations between offspring fitness components and the ages of the adults around them. These associations appear to be primarily driven by age-related environmental effects, rather than age-related changes in germline.

scholarly journals Predictors of listening-related fatigue across the adult lifespan

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronan McGarrigle ◽  
Sarah Knight ◽  
Benjamin Hornsby ◽  
Sven Mattys
Keyword(s):  
Process Analysis ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Auditory Attention ◽  
Adult Lifespan ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Conditional Process Analysis ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Age Related Changes

Listening-related fatigue is a potentially serious negative consequence of an aging auditory and cognitive system. However, the impact of age on listening-related fatigue, and the factors underpinning any such effect, remain unexplored. Using data from a large sample of adults (N = 281), we conducted a conditional process analysis to examine potential mediators and moderators of age-related changes in listening-related fatigue. Mediation analyses revealed opposing effects of age on listening-related fatigue; aging was associated with increased listening-related fatigue for individuals with higher self-reported hearing impairment, but also decreased listening-related fatigue via reductions in mood disturbance and sensory processing sensitivity (‘sensitivity’). Results also suggested that the effect of auditory attention ability on listening-related fatigue was moderated by sensitivity; for individuals with high sensitivity, better auditory attention ability was associated with increased fatigue. These findings shed light on the perceptual, cognitive, and psychological factors underlying age-related changes in listening-related fatigue.

Abstract WMP49: The Impact of Age vs. Age-Related Comorbidities on White Matter Hyperintensity Volume

Stroke ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin S King ◽  
Ronald M Peshock ◽  
Roderick M McColl ◽  
Colby Ayers ◽  
Sandeep R Das
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Microvascular Disease ◽  
Threshold Effect ◽  
White Matter Hyperintensity ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Obesity Hypertension ◽  
Dallas Heart Study ◽  
The Impact

Introduction: White matter hyperintensity (WMH) at MRIis a marker of cerebral microvascular disease and confers risk for cognitive impairment. The strongest determinant of WMH volume is age, but the extent to which this is explained by age related abnormalities comorbidities is unclear. Using data from the large, multi-ethnic Dallas Heart Study (DHS), we compared age related differences in WMH volume in the overall DHS cohort to a subset without obesity, diabetes, or hypertension. Methods: Automated WMH volumes for 2,011 DHS participants were acquired from 3T MRI. The impact of aging on WMH volume independent of comorbidities was quantified in a subset of 218 DHS participants without obesity, diabetes, or hypertension. The impact of comorbidities in the overall cohort was then quantified by subtracting the mean age-specific WMH volumes of the healthy group from the overall cohort and evaluating the association of these normalized values with age using linear regression. To assess the possibility of a threshold effect, data were modeled using cubic splines. Results: In the healthy cohort, WMH volume was correlated with age (p<0.001) with modest explanatory power (r 2 =0.12). The explanatory power of age in the overall cohort was higher (r 2 =0.22) and since a spline fit showed a threshold effect at age 55 (p<0.001), the analysis was stratified at that point. Using normalized data, there was no association between age and WMH volumes prior to age 55 (p=0.3), while WMH volume increased with age after that point (p<0.001), see attached figure. Conclusions: In this large, multi-ethnic cohort, after accounting for the modest baseline association between age and WMH volume seen in healthy subjects, we characterize the relation between age and WMH volume that reflects the impact of comorbid obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. The observed threshold effect suggests that these comorbidites have little impact on WMH volume prior to age 55, but likely play a significant role above that age.

scholarly journals Parental aggression against dependent young results in task partitioning in a cooperatively breeding bird

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nichola J Raihani ◽  
Amanda R Ridley
Keyword(s):  
Wild Population ◽  
Task Partitioning ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Eusocial Insects ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding ◽  
Brood Division ◽  
Parental Aggression ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Complementary Study

In cooperatively breeding species, helpers can alleviate reproductive constraints by assuming the role of primary carers to first-born young, liberating breeders to invest in subsequent broods. However, evidence on how first-born young are transferred to helpers is currently lacking. We propose that breeder–offspring aggression might facilitate inter-brood division and test this idea using data from a wild population of cooperatively breeding pied babblers ( Turdoides bicolor ). After second-brood young hatch, breeders become increasingly aggressive to first-brood fledglings and attack them when they beg for food. After an attack, fledglings reduce begging. Helpers are much less aggressive to begging fledglings and fledglings subsequently tend to target helpers, rather than breeders, when begging for food. In this way, first-born dependent young are transferred to helpers, resulting in a partitioning of tasks among breeders and helpers. Task partitioning in eusocial insects is thought to be determined by the morphological or physiological characteristics of individuals. This complementary study suggests that flexible behavioural strategies may also result in specialized roles in cooperatively breeding vertebrates.

scholarly journals Father absence predicts age at sexual maturity and reproductive timing in British men

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Sheppard ◽  
Rebecca Sear
Keyword(s):  
Childhood Adversity ◽  
Father Absence ◽  
Paternal Investment ◽  
Reproductive Timing ◽  
Offspring Survival ◽  
Reproductive Outcomes ◽  
Timing Of Reproduction ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Large Representative

Despite the widespread assumption that paternal investment is substantial in our species, previous studies have shown mixed results in relation to the impact of fathers on both offspring survival and reproductive outcomes. Using data from a large representative sample of British men, we tested whether father absence is associated with the timing of reproduction-related events among boys, while controlling for various cues denoting early childhood adversity. We further tested whether the loss of the father at different childhood stages matters, so as to assess whether early life is the most important period or if effects can be seen during later childhood. The results show that father absence before age seven is associated with early reproduction, while father absence between ages 11 and 16 only is associated with delayed voice-breaking (a proxy for puberty), even after adjusting for other factors denoting childhood adversity. We conclude that fathers do exert an influence on male reproductive outcomes, independently of other childhood adversities and that these effects are sensitive to the timing of father absence.

scholarly journals Sons accelerate maternal aging in a wild mammal

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (9) ◽  
pp. 4850-4857 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathieu Douhard ◽  
Marco Festa-Bianchet ◽  
Fanie Pelletier
Keyword(s):  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Offspring Sex Ratio ◽  
Reproductive Senescence ◽  
Evolutionary Theories ◽  
Theories Of Aging ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Using Data

Aging, or senescence, is a progressive deterioration of physiological function with age. It leads to age-related declines in reproduction (reproductive senescence) and survival (actuarial senescence) in most organisms. However, senescence patterns can be highly variable across species, populations, and individuals, and the reasons for such variations remain poorly understood. Evolutionary theories predict that increases in reproductive effort in early life should be associated with accelerated senescence, but empirical tests have yielded mixed results. Although in sexually size-dimorphic species offspring of the larger sex (typically males) commonly require more parental resources, these sex differences are not currently incorporated into evolutionary theories of aging. Here, we show that female reproductive senescence varies with both the number and sex ratio of offspring weaned during early life, using data from a long-term study of bighorn sheep. For a given number of offspring, females that weaned more sons than daughters when aged between 2 and 7 y experienced faster senescence in offspring survival in old age. By contrast, analyses of actuarial senescence showed no cost of early-life reproduction. Our results unite two important topics in evolutionary biology: life history and sex allocation. Offspring sex ratio may help explain among-individual variation in senescence rates in other species, including humans.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document