Environmental effects at two nested spatial scales on habitat choice and breeding performance of barn swallow |
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Authors: | Roberto Ambrosini Nicola Saino |
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Institution: | 1.Dipartimento di Biotecnologie e Bioscienze,Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca,Milan,Italy;2.Dipartimento di Biologia,Università degli Studi di Milano,Milan,Italy |
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Abstract: | Parental effects comprise a wide range of mechanisms that individuals may adopt to enhance viability and adjust the phenotype
of their offspring according to the conditions that the offspring will experience after birth. For example, individual choice
of breeding habitat may mediate such parental effects via an effect of prenatal breeding conditions independently or in combination
with offspring post-natal environment. However, ecological factors relevant to adaptive breeding habitat choice may vary at
different spatial scales, which have been rarely investigated simultaneously. In the first part of the present study we use
hierarchical linear models to disentangle micro- and macro-environmental variation in abundance and breeding performance of
a small passerine bird, the barn swallow Hirundo rustica. We show that environmental conditions at the scale of nesting microhabitat are more influential than macro-environmental
conditions at the scale of foraging range. We then experimentally investigate the effect of variation in micro-environmental
conditions on growth and immunity of chicks by partially cross-fostering nestlings immediately after hatching between different
nesting micro-habitats. Our results disclosed significant effects of environmental conditions where eggs were laid and incubated
but not of those where nestlings grew-up on some components of nestling phenotype important for fitness. These results suggest
that adults may enhance offspring quality by adjusting prenatal parental effects mediated by e.g., egg quality according to
micro-habitat conditions where parents are breeding. |
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