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Kyle Summers - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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The Biparental Care hypothesis for the evolution of monogamy: experimental evidence in an amphibian
Behavioral Ecology, 2013Co-Authors: James P. Tumulty, Victor Morales, Kyle SummersAbstract:Selection for Biparental Care is considered to be an important factor favoring the evolution of monogamy if the value of exclusive cooperation in Care for mutual offspring outweighs the benefits of polygamy for either sex. Support for this hypothesis has come primarily through parent removal experiments in avian taxa. We tested this hypothesis in the first known example of a socially and genetically monogamous amphibian, the mimic poison frog (Ranitomeya imitator). Biparental Care in R. imitator is characterized by egg attendance, tadpole transport, and feeding of tadpoles with unfertilized trophic eggs. Using a male removal experiment, we found lower tadpole growth and lower survival for widowed females compared with control families. We demonstrate that in addition to egg attendance and tadpole transport, male parental Care is critical for offspring survival throughout larval development. Previous research has shown the importance of female trophic egg provisioning of tadpoles in R. imitator. This, coupled with the results of the present study demonstrating the adaptive value of male Care, supports the hypothesis that selection for Biparental Care has driven the evolution of monogamy in an amphibian.
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a key ecological trait drove the evolution of Biparental Care and monogamy in an amphibian
The American Naturalist, 2010Co-Authors: Jason L. Brown, Victor Morales, Kyle SummersAbstract:Linking specific ecological factors to the evolution of parental Care pattern and mating system is a difficult task of key importance. We provide evidence from comparative analyses that an ecological factor (breeding pool size) is associated with the evolution of parental Care across all frogs. We further show that the most intensive form of parental Care (trophic egg feeding) evolved in con- cert with the use of small pools for tadpole deposition and that egg feeding was associated with the evolution of Biparental Care. Previous research on two Peruvian poison frogs (Ranitomeya imitator and Ranitomeya variabilis) revealed similar life histories, with the excep- tion of breeding pool size. This key ecological difference led to di- vergence in parental Care patterns and mating systems. We present ecological field experiments that demonstrate that Biparental Care is essential to tadpole survival in small (but not large) pools. Field observations demonstrate social monogamy in R. imitator, the species that uses small pools. Molecular analyses demonstrate genetic mo- nogamy in R. imitator, the first example of genetic monogamy in an amphibian. In total, this evidence constitutes the most complete documentation to date that a single ecological factor drove the evo- lution of Biparental Care and genetic and social monogamy in an animal.
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Phytotelm size in relation to parental Care and mating strategies in two species of Peruvian poison frogs
Behaviour, 2008Co-Authors: Jason L. Brown, Victor Morales, Evan Twomey, Kyle SummersAbstract:Summary Factors contributing to the evolution of reproductive strategies have been of great interest to evolutionary biologists. In tropical amphibians predation and competition have been suggested to play a major role. Poison frogs of the family Dendrobatidae display a trend towards the use of very small pools and increased parental Care, particularly in the genus Dendrobates. Some species with female parental Care, asymmetrical Biparental Care and Biparental Care, have evolved novel behaviors in association with the use very small phytotelmata. It has been hypothesized that selection pressure imposed by predation and competition favored the use of small phytotelmata, and this, in turn, produced selection for trophic egg provisioning to ameliorate the lack of available nutrients. To elucidate the ecological factors associated with the transition from uniparental male Care to Biparental Care and associated changes in social behaviors, we evaluated key behavioral and ecological differences between Dendrobates imitator and D. variabilis. Dendrobates imitator used significantly smaller phytotelmata in different plant species than D. variabilis for tadpole and embryo deposition. The parental strategy of D. variabilis was limited to male parental Care, whereas D. imitator exhibited Biparental Care. Males and females of D. variabilis were observed to have a promiscuous mating system with little mate fidelity. This contrasted with D. imitator, where paired males and females were observed interacting daily and were never observed courting additional mates. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that a key ecological difference between these species, involving the size of pools typically used for reproduction, is strongly associated with the evolution of Biparental Care and monogamy in D. imitator.
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THE COST OF POLYGYNY AND THE EVOLUTION OF FEMALE Care IN POISON FROGS
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 1999Co-Authors: Kyle Summers, David J. D. EarnAbstract:Previous research on a variety of organisms indicates that polygyny can impose a cost on the reproductive success of females. Some authors have hypothesized that this cost may have caused the evolution of female parental Care from paternal or Biparental Care in some lineages, particularly in poison frogs of the genusDendrobates. In this paper, we evaluate the assumptions and theoretical implications of this hypothesis and present several game-theoretic models that clarify some of the issues. We conclude that a cost of polygyny is unlikely to drive a female Care strategy to fixation on its own; however, if caring males suffer a cost of lost mating opportunities then a cost of polygyny may destabilize male Care and result in the evolution of uniparental female Care. A cost of polygyny on its own may be able to drive a transition from male Care to Biparental Care. We also discuss other factors that may have influenced the evolution of parental Care in the poison frogs, including results from recent field and laboratory research, and we evaluate the possibility that female Care evolved from Biparental, as opposed to male Care.
Robert E. Lemon - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Parental-Care responses by yellow warblers (Dendroica petechia) to simultaneous manipulations of food abundance and brood size
Canadian Journal of Zoology, 1998Co-Authors: George A. Lozano, Robert E. LemonAbstract:Theoretical models view Biparental Care as a state of equilibrium that can be maintained only when the amount of parental Care provided by one parent depends on the amount provided by its mate. According to these models, Biparental Care results when a decrease in the contribution of one parent is partially, but not completely, compensated for by an increase in the contribution of the other parent. Furthermore, this equilibrium state can only be stable if any other external factor affects male and female effort equally. We used yellow warblers (Dendroica petechia) to examine whether changes in brood size and food abundance affect the parental contributions of the sexes equally. Supplemental food did not affect parental Care by either sex, but brood size did. Both males and females provided more to larger broods, and in large broods only, their provisioning rates increased with nestling age. Parental effort per nestling was similar in the two sexes, being higher for smaller broods and increasing with nestli...
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Food abundance and parental Care in yellow warblers ( Dendroica petechia )
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 1995Co-Authors: George A. Lozano, Robert E. LemonAbstract:Emlen and Oring (1977) suggested that monogamy in birds is maintained because of the need for strict Biparental Care. A corollary of their suggestion is that paternal Care should decrease under conditions of high food abundance. An alternative is that paternal Care would increase if males take advantage of the higher food abundance by trying to reduce the length of the nestling feeding period. We tested these two ideas using yellow warblers (Dendroica petechia) by providing some pairs with supplemental food, thereby reducing the importance of Biparental Care. However, the extra food did not decrease paternal effort, nor did it increase it (Fig. 2). Early in the nestling period experimental females brooded more but visited their nestlings less than did control females, but later, when brooding times decreased, experimental females fed their nestlings more than did control females (Fig. 3). There were no significant differences in nestling survival (Fig. 5), but nestlings in the control treatment were larger and heavier up to 6 days old (Fig. 6). The main effect of supplemental food was on maternal, not paternal behaviour. Models of Biparental Care assume interdependence between the parental effort of both parents. In this species, however, males and females provide for their brood independently from each other.
David J. D. Earn - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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THE COST OF POLYGYNY AND THE EVOLUTION OF FEMALE Care IN POISON FROGS
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 1999Co-Authors: Kyle Summers, David J. D. EarnAbstract:Previous research on a variety of organisms indicates that polygyny can impose a cost on the reproductive success of females. Some authors have hypothesized that this cost may have caused the evolution of female parental Care from paternal or Biparental Care in some lineages, particularly in poison frogs of the genusDendrobates. In this paper, we evaluate the assumptions and theoretical implications of this hypothesis and present several game-theoretic models that clarify some of the issues. We conclude that a cost of polygyny is unlikely to drive a female Care strategy to fixation on its own; however, if caring males suffer a cost of lost mating opportunities then a cost of polygyny may destabilize male Care and result in the evolution of uniparental female Care. A cost of polygyny on its own may be able to drive a transition from male Care to Biparental Care. We also discuss other factors that may have influenced the evolution of parental Care in the poison frogs, including results from recent field and laboratory research, and we evaluate the possibility that female Care evolved from Biparental, as opposed to male Care.
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An Evolutionary Model of Parental Care in St. Peter's Fish
Journal of Theoretical Biology, 1997Co-Authors: Sigal Balshine-earn, David J. D. EarnAbstract:Abstract Galilee St. Peter's fish shows unusual lability in caring patterns; male-only, female-only and Biparental Care all occur in the same population. We present a game-theoretical model and investigate the evolutionary stability of the Care frequencies observed. Using mean values for each of the model's parameters (estimated previously for the Lake Kinneret population of St. Peter's fish) we find that the current Care frequencies are unstable and male-only Care is the only evolutionarily stable parental Care strategy. However, two key model parameters have significant dispersions: the operational sex ratio (OSR) varies both temporally and spatially, and the advantage of Biparental Care relative to uniparental Care depends critically on clutch size, which can vary dramatically. Within the full ranges of observed OSRs and clutch sizes, there are regions in which each of male-only, female-only and Biparental Care is an evolutionary stable strategy; there is also a region where no evolutionarily stable strategy exists. Thus natural variations in OSR and clutch size may account for the observed Care frequencies.
Tamás Székely - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Social role specialization promotes cooperation between parents.
The American Naturalist, 2014Co-Authors: Zoltán Barta, Tamás Székely, András Liker, Freya HarrisonAbstract:Biparental Care of offspring is a widespread social behavior, and various ecological, life-history, and demographic factors have been proposed to explain its evolution and maintenance. Raising offspring generally requires several types of Care (e.g., feeding, brooding, and defense), and males and females often specialize in providing different types of Care. However, theoretical models of Care often assume that Care is a single variable and hence that a unit of Care by the mother is interchangeable with a unit of Care by the father. We hypothesize that the ability of one parent to provide all types of Care may be limited by nonadditive costs or by sex-based asymmetries in the costs of particular Care types. Using an individual-based simulation, we show that synergistic costs of investing in two tasks or negligible sex-based cost asymmetries select for task specialization and Biparental Care. Biparental Care persists despite intense sexual selection and sex-biased mortality, suggesting that previous models make overly restrictive predictions of the conditions under which cooperation can be maintained. Our model provides a mechanistic underpinning for published models that show that the synergistic benefits of individuals cooperating can stabilize cooperation, both in the context of parental Care and in other social scenarios.
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Local environment but not genetic differentiation influences Biparental Care in ten plover populations.
PloS one, 2013Co-Authors: Orsolya Vincze, Tamás Székely, Juan A Amat, Clemens Küpper, Monif Alrashidi, Araceli Argüelles Ticó, Daniel Burgas, Terry Burke, John F. Cavitt, Jordi FiguerolaAbstract:Social behaviours are highly variable between species, populations and individuals. However, it is contentious whether behavioural variations are primarily moulded by the environment, caused by genetic differences, or a combination of both. Here we establish that Biparental Care, a complex social behaviour that involves rearing of young by both parents, differs between closely related populations, and then test two potential sources of variation in parental behaviour between populations: ambient environment and genetic differentiation. We use 2904 hours behavioural data from 10 geographically distinct Kentish (Charadrius alexandrinus) and snowy plover (C. nivosus) populations in America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa to test these two sources of behavioural variation. We show that local ambient temperature has a significant influence on parental Care: with extreme heat (above 40°C) total incubation (i.e. % of time the male or female incubated the nest) increased, and female share (% female share of incubation) decreased. By contrast, neither genetic differences between populations, nor geographic distances predicted total incubation or female's share of incubation. These results suggest that the local environment has a stronger influence on a social behaviour than genetic differentiation, at least between populations of closely related species.
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Parental cooperation in an extreme hot environment: natural behaviour and experimental evidence
Animal Behaviour, 2011Co-Authors: Monif Alrashidi, Clemens Küpper, András Kosztolányi, Mohammed Shobrak, Tamás SzékelyAbstract:One of the most apparent examples of cooperation between unrelated individuals is Biparental Care whereby the male and the female parent share the rearing of the offspring. Theoretical models of Care predict that selection should favour Biparental Care if it substantially improves the survival of the offspring. Although various ecological factors have been proposed to necessitate Biparental Care, experimental evidence is scant given the challenges of manipulating ecological factors in the natural habitat of animals. We carried out one such experiment in a small shorebird, the Kentish plover, Charadrius alexandrinus, that breeds in an extreme desert environment. Nest cover and thus exposure to solar radiation vary between nests, and we show that parents at exposed nests spent more time incubating than those at nests shaded by a bush (covered nests). Experimental removal and supplementation of nest cover gave results consistent with the observational data; at experimentally exposed nests both males and females increased incubation effort and relieved each other more frequently whereas at experimentally covered nests we observed the opposite. We conclude that exposure to extreme solar radiation influences Biparental Care and this necessitates parental cooperation in the Kentish plover. Furthermore, since parental Care often coevolves with mating strategies, we conjecture that where the environment puts less pressure on the parents and provides the opportunity for reduced Care, both mating systems and parental Care can diversify over evolutionary time.
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how is sexual conflict over parental Care resolved a meta analysis
Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2009Co-Authors: Freya Harrison, Innes C Cuthill, Zoltan Barta, Tamás SzékelyAbstract:Biparental Care of offspring is both a form of cooperation and a source of conflict. Parents face a trade-off between current and future reproduction: caring less for the current brood allows individuals to maintain energy reserves and increase their chances of remating. How can selection maintain Biparental Care, given this temptation to defect? The answer lies in how parents respond to changes in each other’s effort. Game-theoretical models predict that Biparental Care is evolutionarily stable when reduced Care by one parent leads its partner to increase Care, but not so much that it completely compensates for the lost input. Experiments designed to reveal responses to reduced partner effort have mainly focused on birds. We present a meta-analysis of 54 such studies, and conclude that the mean response was indeed partial compensation. Males and females responded differently and this was in part mediated by the type of manipulation used.
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breeding ecology of kentish plover charadrius alexandrinus in an extremely hot environment
Bird Study, 2009Co-Authors: András Kosztolányi, Innes C Cuthill, Clemens Küpper, Salim Javed, Abdulnasser Al Shamsi, Tamás SzékelyAbstract:Capsule Hot environments are associated with more Biparental Care, high nest‐site fidelity and low mate fidelity. Aims To investigate the breeding ecology and parental behaviour of Kentish Plovers in an extremely hot environment. Kentish Plovers have an unusually diverse breeding system in which the frequencies of Biparental, female‐only and male‐only Care vary between populations. A common, but rarely tested, explanation for such a variation is local adaptation: birds exhibit social traits that are adaptive to their breeding environment. In particular, we investigated the effect of a hot environment on breeding success, distribution of Care types, and mate and site fidelity. Methods A breeding population of approximately 200 pairs of Kentish Plovers was investigated in 2005 and 2006 at Al Wathba Wetland near Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Results We found high nest‐site fidelity, low mate fidelity and more Biparental Care in Al Wathba than in most temperate zone populations of Kentish Plovers. Co...
George A. Lozano - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Parental-Care responses by yellow warblers (Dendroica petechia) to simultaneous manipulations of food abundance and brood size
Canadian Journal of Zoology, 1998Co-Authors: George A. Lozano, Robert E. LemonAbstract:Theoretical models view Biparental Care as a state of equilibrium that can be maintained only when the amount of parental Care provided by one parent depends on the amount provided by its mate. According to these models, Biparental Care results when a decrease in the contribution of one parent is partially, but not completely, compensated for by an increase in the contribution of the other parent. Furthermore, this equilibrium state can only be stable if any other external factor affects male and female effort equally. We used yellow warblers (Dendroica petechia) to examine whether changes in brood size and food abundance affect the parental contributions of the sexes equally. Supplemental food did not affect parental Care by either sex, but brood size did. Both males and females provided more to larger broods, and in large broods only, their provisioning rates increased with nestling age. Parental effort per nestling was similar in the two sexes, being higher for smaller broods and increasing with nestli...
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Food abundance and parental Care in yellow warblers ( Dendroica petechia )
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 1995Co-Authors: George A. Lozano, Robert E. LemonAbstract:Emlen and Oring (1977) suggested that monogamy in birds is maintained because of the need for strict Biparental Care. A corollary of their suggestion is that paternal Care should decrease under conditions of high food abundance. An alternative is that paternal Care would increase if males take advantage of the higher food abundance by trying to reduce the length of the nestling feeding period. We tested these two ideas using yellow warblers (Dendroica petechia) by providing some pairs with supplemental food, thereby reducing the importance of Biparental Care. However, the extra food did not decrease paternal effort, nor did it increase it (Fig. 2). Early in the nestling period experimental females brooded more but visited their nestlings less than did control females, but later, when brooding times decreased, experimental females fed their nestlings more than did control females (Fig. 3). There were no significant differences in nestling survival (Fig. 5), but nestlings in the control treatment were larger and heavier up to 6 days old (Fig. 6). The main effect of supplemental food was on maternal, not paternal behaviour. Models of Biparental Care assume interdependence between the parental effort of both parents. In this species, however, males and females provide for their brood independently from each other.