Offspring fitness and individual optimization of clutch size

TY - JOUR

T1 - Offspring fitness and individual optimization of clutch size

AU - Both, C.

AU - Tinbergen, J.M.

AU - Van Noordwijk, A.J.

N1 - Reporting year: 1998 Metis note: 2451; CTE; PVD ; AnE; file:///L:/Endnotedatabases/NIOOPUB/pdfs/Pdfs1998/Both_ea_2451.pdf

PY - 1998

Y1 - 1998

N2 - Within-year variation in clutch size has been claimed to be an adaptation to variation in the individual capacity to raise offspring. We tested this hypothesis by manipulating brood size to one common size, and predicted that if clutch size is individually optimized, then birds with originally large clutches have a higher fitness than birds with originally small clutches. No evidence was found that fitness was related to the original clutch size, and in this population clutch size is thus not related to the parental capacity to raise offspring. However, offspring from larger original clutches recruited better than their nest-mates that came from smaller original clutches. This suggests that early maternal or genetic variation in viability is related to clutch size. [KEYWORDS: life history; clutch size optimization; recruitment; Parus major; cross-fostering Tits parus-major; great-tit; brood size; reproductive success; ficedula-hypoleuca; juvenile survival; nestling weight; parent; heritability; density]

AB - Within-year variation in clutch size has been claimed to be an adaptation to variation in the individual capacity to raise offspring. We tested this hypothesis by manipulating brood size to one common size, and predicted that if clutch size is individually optimized, then birds with originally large clutches have a higher fitness than birds with originally small clutches. No evidence was found that fitness was related to the original clutch size, and in this population clutch size is thus not related to the parental capacity to raise offspring. However, offspring from larger original clutches recruited better than their nest-mates that came from smaller original clutches. This suggests that early maternal or genetic variation in viability is related to clutch size. [KEYWORDS: life history; clutch size optimization; recruitment; Parus major; cross-fostering Tits parus-major; great-tit; brood size; reproductive success; ficedula-hypoleuca; juvenile survival; nestling weight; parent; heritability; density]

U2 - 10.1098/rspb.1998.0575

DO - 10.1098/rspb.1998.0575

M3 - Article

SN - 0962-8452

VL - 265

SP - 2303

EP - 2307

JO - Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences

JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences

IS - 1412

ER -