Climate change may influence the phenology of organisms unequally across trophic levels and thus lead to phenological mismatches between predators and prey. In cases where prey availability peaks before reproducing predators reach maximal prey demand, any negative fitness consequences would selectively favor resynchronization by earlier starts of the reproductive activities of the predators. At...

A longstanding suggestion posits that parents prefer to match nest volume and clutch size (clutch volume), but few studies have tested this in colonial seabirds that nest in the open. Here, we demonstrate the effects of nest-clutch volume matching on egg survival, hatching, and fledgling success in black-tailed gulls Larus crassirostris on Hongdo Island, Korea. We show that the volume mismatch,...

Comparative analyses suggest that a variety of ecological and behavioural factors contribute to the tremendous variability in extrapair mating among birds. In an analysis of 1010 species of birds, we examined several ecological and behavioural factors in relation to testes size; an index of sperm competition and the extent of extrapair mating. In univariate and multivariate analyses, testes siz...

Maternal glucocorticoids are known to affect offspring phenotype in numerous vertebrate taxa. In birds, the maternal transfer of corticosterone to eggs was recently proposed as a hormonal mechanism by which offspring phenotype is matched to the relative quality of the maternal environment. However, current hypotheses lack supporting information on both intra- and inter-clutch variation in yolk ...

A central tenet of life-history theory is that investment in reproduction compromises survival. We tested for costs of reproduction in wild brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) by eliminating reproductive investment via surgical ovariectomy and/or removal of oviductal eggs. Anoles are unusual among lizards in that females lay single-egg clutches at frequent intervals throughout a lengthy reproductive s...

GEOGRAPHIC variation in clutch size and its possible adaptive significance have been examined by many authors, most notably Moreau (1944), Lack (1947, 1948, 1954, 1966, 1968), Skutch (1949, 1950, 1967), WynneEdwards (1962), and Klomp (1970). Although these authors examined a broad spectrum of orders, the majority of data are for passerines. This paper reports an examination of clutch size in ow...

Cognition has been studied intensively for several decades, but the evolutionary processes that shape individual variation in cognitive traits remain elusive [1-3]. For instance, the strength of selection on a cognitive trait has never been estimated in a natural population, and the possibility that positive links with life history variation [1-5] are mitigated by costs [6] or confounded by eco...

The nest survival of the Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) in coastal Mississippi was modeled to better understand their breeding biology and suggest management strategies for protecting nesting colonies. During the 2004 and 2005 breeding seasons a total of 301 nests was monitored and hatching success was 67% in 2004 and 39% in 2005. Mean clutch size differed between years, although mean incubatio...

Nest site has influence on incubation duration and hatching success of two Neotropical turtles, the giant Amazon River turtle (Podocnemis expansa) and yellow-spotted side-neck turtle (Podocnemis unifilis--'Tracajá'). The 2000 and 2001 nesting seasons have been monitored at the Javaés River in Bananal Island, Brazil. Although they nest on the same beaches, there is a separation of the nesting ar...

1. It has been suggested that immune defences are shaped by life history and ecology, but few general patterns have been described across species. We hypothesized that 'fast' life-history traits (e.g. short development times, large clutch sizes) would be associated with developmentally inexpensive immune defences, minimizing the resource demands of young animals' immune systems during periods o...