Asynchrony of ageing among traits in a wild bird population

Claire Lok Sze Tsui , Michael Briga, Jan Komdeur, Terry Burke, David S Richardson, Hannah L Dugdale 

Ageing i.e. age-related changes in a trait, is a highly variable process. Studies have investigated variation in ageing among species and individuals, but little is yet understood about variation between traits. Evolutionary hypotheses argued that traits should age synchronously as selection should improve the trait that first senesces, therefore leading to trait synchrony. However, some past studies have demonstrated that traits do not senesce synchronously. We tested for the (a)synchrony of ageing across 13 reproductive, behavioural, physiological and morphological traits in a population of wild Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis). We modelled ageing trajectories for each trait and quantified synchrony between traits with similar ageing trajectory shapes by comparing the onset and rate of ageing and running bivariate models to quantify covariation between traits. We found that 7 traits exhibited ageing while 6 did not. Upon visual comparison of ageing trajectories, there were 3 groups of traits that shared ageing trajectories of the same shape. There was no support for synchronous ageing among any traits. Our study adds to growing evidence that ageing is asynchronous, and that the theory of synchronous ageing was erroneous. Our finding of senescence in direct fitness indices such as survival and reproductive but not in tarsus length gives weak support to newer evolutionary theories of asynchrony of ageing that traits more strongly associated with fitness age faster.