Sex-specific reproductive tactics: fitness consequences of avian sex allocation and dispersal strategies
Informations
- Funding country
Netherlands- Acronym
- -
- URL
- -
- Start date
- 4/1/2003
- End date
- 4/15/2011
- Budget
- 845,000 EUR
Fundings
| Name | Role | Start | End | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALW Innovational Research Incentives Scheme Vici 2002 | Grant | 4/1/2003 | 4/15/2011 | 845,000 EUR |
Organisations
Abstract
Modern evolutionary theory assumes that individuals maximise their inclusive fitness. It arrives at predictions concerning optimal dispersal and allocation to the more ‘valuable’ offspring sex (sex allocation theory). A suite of factors may affect the reproductive value of the sexes differentially and should affect the sex allocation of the parents. Standard sex allocation theory is tailored to invertebrate species, and consequently uses assumptions which are violated in vertebrates. Crucial to the prediction of sex allocation is the understanding of the factors that determine reproductive value of individual sons and daughters as a function of their ecological circumstances. Important determinants of these values are the outcome of competition for mates, breeding sites, and costs/benefits of group living. An interplay between these determinants emerges because resources are non-uniformly distributed over space, causing frequency dependent effects. The aim of study is to test recently developed sex allocation theory in birds. I will (1) assess the reproductive values of sons and daughters to both the mother and the father under a suite of ecologically relevant circumstances, (2) study sex ratio adjustment and its causality in a known system, and (3) develop new models that predict sex allocation decisions for vertebrates. I will use the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis), an island species with extreme parental sex ratio manipulation, to disentangle the effects of breeding density, operational sex ratio, and co-operation/competition between same-sex offspring, on parental fitness and parental decisions on sex allocation. (ii) I will use the great tit (Parus major) to study how sex-specific juvenile fitness is affected by operational sex ratio and breeding density. For both species there is a wealth of data allowing accurate fitness measurements.