Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Evolution
Sex- and context-specific associations between personality and a measure of fitness but no link with life history traits
Published: 2019-11-22
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
The pace of life syndrome hypothesis posits that personality traits (i.e., consistent individual differences in behaviour) are linked to life history and fitness. Specifically, fast-paced individuals are predicted to be proactive (i.e., active and aggressive) with an earlier age at first reproduction, a shorter lifespan, and a higher fecundity than slow-paced individuals. Environmental conditions [...]
Environmental effects on the covariation among pace-of-life traits
Published: 2019-11-20
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Pace-of-life syndromes (POLSs) are suites of life-history, physiological and behavioral traits that arise due to trade-offs between allocation to current and future reproduction. Traits generally show covariation that can arise from genetic and environmental influences on phenotypes and constrain the independent evolution of traits, resulting in fitness consequences and impacts on population [...]
Decoupled morphological and biomechanical evolution and diversification of the wing in bats
Published: 2019-11-06
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Bats use their forelimbs in different ways, flight being the most notable example of morphological adaptation. However, different behavioural specializations beyond flight have also been described in several bat lineages. Understanding the postcranial evolution during the locomotory and behavioural diversification of bats is fundamental to understanding bat evolution. We investigate whether [...]
Selection on reproductive plasticity in a wild population of blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus
Published: 2019-11-04
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
In the plant-insect-insectivorous-bird system, changing climates can result in mis-timing in bird reproduction, potentially impacting chick survival. To adapt to earlier prey emergence, birds can make use of phenotypic plasticity, which can be characterized by reaction norms. Despite gaining focus in research, studies on avian reproductive reaction norms as traits are scarce, particularly on [...]
The Price equation and the unity of social evolution theory
Published: 2019-10-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
The Price equation has been entangled with social evolution theory from the start. It has been used to derive the most general versions of kin selection theory, and Price himself produced a multilevel equation which provides an alternative formulation of social evolution theory, dividing selection into components between and within groups. In this sense, the Price equation forms a basis for both [...]
The causes and consequences of ornament variation in a natural population
Published: 2019-10-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
The role of sexual selection in natural populations has long been the subject of debate in evolutionary biology. Ornaments are sexually selected traits, which means they should vary within a population, have a genetic basis, and be associated with fitness. Despite evidence of ornaments meeting these criteria, evolutionary responses to sexual selection are rare in nature. This study focuses on two [...]
Toward a metabolic theory of life history
Published: 2019-09-28
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Population Biology
Significance Data and theory reveal how organisms allocate metabolic energy to components of the life history that determine fitness. In each generation animals take up biomass energy from the environment and expended it on survival, growth, and reproduction. Life histories of animals exhibit enormous diversity – from large fish and invertebrates that produce literally millions of tiny eggs and [...]
Illustrating the importance of meta-analysing variances alongside means in ecology and evolution
Published: 2019-09-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Meta-analysis is increasingly used in biology to both quantitatively summarize available evidence for specific questions, and generate new hypotheses. While this powerful tool has mostly been deployed to study mean effects, there is untapped potential to study effects on (trait) variance. Here, we use a recently published dataset as a case study to demonstrate how meta-analysis of variance can be [...]
Parental breeding age effects on descendants’ longevity interact over two generations in matrilines and patrilines
Published: 2019-08-01
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Individuals within populations vary enormously in mortality risk and longevity, but the causes of this variation remain poorly understood. A potentially important and phylogenetically widespread source of such variation is maternal age at breeding, which typically has negative effects on offspring longevity. Here, we show that paternal age can affect offspring longevity as strongly as maternal [...]
Individual differences in behaviour explain variation in survival: a meta-analysis
Published: 2019-08-01
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Research focusing on among-individual differences in behaviour (“animal personality”) has been blooming for over a decade. One of the central theories explaining the maintenance of behavioural variation posits a trade-off between behaviour and survival with individuals expressing greater “risky” behaviours suffering higher mortality. Here, for the first time, we synthesize the existing empirical [...]
Relationships between mycorrhizal type and leaf flammability in the Australian flora
Published: 2019-07-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Evolution, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Plant Sciences
Mycorrhizal fungi have been linked to fire processes in natural ecosystems via their effects on litter decomposability but, to our knowledge, relationships between mycorrhizal fungi and leaf traits directly associated with aspects of flammability have not been studied. Here, we assessed the relationships among leaf traits and host mycorrhizal type for 77 species of Australian trees and shrubs to [...]
Male age and its association with reproductive traits in captive and wild house sparrows
Published: 2019-06-28
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Evolutionary theory predicts that females seek extra-pair fertilisations from high-quality males. In socially monogamous bird species, it is often old males that are most successful in extra-pair fertilisations. Adaptive models of female extra-pair mate choice suggest that old males may produce offspring of higher genetic quality than young males because they have proven their survivability. [...]
The ‘Holy Grail’ in Phylogenetic Reconstruction: Seeing the Forest for the Trees?
Published: 2019-06-17
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Systematic/macroevolutionary biology has dedicated much of the past 50 years of its energy and resources in an effort to resolve definitively the one true ‘tree of life’ and to explain materially its cause. But, no matter the quantity/quality of data, experimentation, and analysis, the effort is hampered by persistent and ever-accumulating contradictory observations. This may be an indication [...]
Does internal egg carrying impair foraging ability as much as external egg carrying in a neotropical spider?
Published: 2019-06-05
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Females not only produce costly gametes, but also store the eggs until oviposition, a period called pregnancy. The volume that eggs occupy in the female abdomen may decrease female foraging ability by making females slow. Although females of all species are subjected to these potential costs, it remains an unexplored matter in invertebrates. Females of the spider Paratrechalea ornata carry their [...]
Transgenerational plasticity and bet-hedging: a framework for reaction norm evolution
Published: 2019-06-04
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Decision-making under uncertain conditions favors bet-hedging (avoidance of fitness variance), whereas predictable environments favor phenotypic plasticity. However, entirely predictable or entirely unpredictable conditions are rarely found in nature. Intermediate strategies are required when the time lag between information sensing and phenotype induction is large (e.g. transgenerational [...]