Calcium effects on life-history traits in a wild population of the great tit (Parus major): analysis of long-term data at several spatial scales |
| |
Authors: | Teddy Albert Wilkin Andrew G Gosler Dany Garant S James Reynolds and Ben C Sheldon |
| |
Institution: | (1) Department of Zoology, Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK;(2) Département de Biologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, J1K 2R1, Canada;(3) Centre for Ornithology, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK |
| |
Abstract: | Calcium is an essential micronutrient for birds during egg formation and for skeletal development in nestlings. Habitat level
studies suggest that birds breeding in low-calcium areas may be limited in the size or number of eggs they lay and in the
quality of their nestlings. However, as birds forage non-randomly and may travel considerable distances to acquire calcium,
describing different breeding environments in terms of their calcium availability is problematic. Here we explore the spatial
relationships between 300-fold variation in soil calcium and the life-history traits of ca. 6,000 pairs of great tits breeding
in a single continuous woodland over 41 years. Controlling for other habitat differences, we found strong positive associations
between soil calcium, clutch size and recruitment at spatial scales of over 300 m from each nestbox, suggesting that females
may have been travelling inter-territorially to acquire calcium during egg formation. Soil calcium near each nestbox (mean
distance = 58 m) was a strong positive predictor of mean fledgling mass, suggesting that local calcium was more important
during nestling stages. We found no effect of soil calcium on lay-date or egg mass. This study is the first to provide evidence
that small woodland passerines are limited by calcium availability at several different spatial scales. However, experimental
work is necessary to test the causality of these spatial patterns. |
| |
Keywords: | Clutch size Fledgling mass Foraging GIS Reproductive success |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|