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Avian growth and development rates and age‐specific mortality: the roles of nest predation and adult mortality
Author(s) -
REMEŠ V.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of evolutionary biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.289
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1420-9101
pISSN - 1010-061X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2006.01191.x
Subject(s) - biology , juvenile , nest (protein structural motif) , predation , incubation , fledge , ecology , mortality rate , zoology , parental investment , egg incubation , demography , larva , offspring , pregnancy , biochemistry , genetics , sociology
Previous studies have shown that avian growth and development covary with juvenile mortality. Juveniles of birds under strong nest predation pressure grow rapidly, have short incubation and nestling periods, and leave the nest at low body mass. Life‐history theory predicts that parental investment increases with adult mortality rate. Thus, developmental traits that depend on the parental effort exerted (pre‐ and postnatal growth rate) should scale positively with adult mortality, in contrast to those that do not have a direct relationship with parental investment (timing of developmental events, e.g. nest leaving). I tested this prediction on a sample of 84 North American songbirds. Nestling growth rate scaled positively and incubation period duration negatively with annual adult mortality rates even when controlled for nest predation and other covariates, including phylogeny. On the contrary, neither the duration of the nestling period nor body mass at fledging showed any relationship. Proximate mechanisms generating the relationship of pre‐ and postnatal growth rates to adult mortality may include increased feeding, nest attentiveness during incubation and/or allocation of hormones, and deserve further attention.