“HIDDEN” REPRODUCTIVE CONFLICT BETWEEN MATES IN A WILD BIRD POPULATION

Problem-solving performance is correlated with reproductive success in a wild bird population

aDépartement de Sciences Biologiques, Université de Montréal, Pavillon Marie-Victorin, Montréal, QC, Canada b School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, U.K. cDepartment of Biology, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada dCNRS, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, Department of Biometry and Evolutionary Biology, Villeurbanne, France eAnimal Ecology, Department of Ecology and...

Reproductive effort transiently reduces antioxidant capacity in a wild bird

Oxidative stress has been suggested as a proximate cost of reproduction and hence as a major constraint in the evolution of life histories, and it is therefore thought that antioxidants alleviate the effects of reproductive effort on oxidative stress. Furthermore, carotenoid-based ornaments have been proposed to mirror male ability to resist oxidative stress. Using a full-factorial experimental...

Personality and basal metabolic rate in a wild bird population

Heritable circadian period length in a wild bird population.

Timing is essential, but circadian clocks, which play a crucial role in timekeeping, are almost unaddressed in evolutionary ecology. A key property of circadian clocks is their free-running period length (τ), i.e. the time taken for a full cycle under constant conditions. Under laboratory conditions, concordance of τ with the ambient light-dark cycle confers major fitness benefits, but little i...

Interactions between prenatal maternal effects and posthatching conditions in a wild bird population

Resources and cues provided by the mother before birth are important mediators of developmental plasticity. It has been suggested that the adaptive value of such prenatal maternal effects may depend on the environment encountered by the offspring after birth, and that offspring may perform better when environmental conditions encountered by the mother and the offspring match, than when a mismat...