Maternal effects in a wild songbird are environmentally plastic but only marginally alter the rate of adaptation

TY - JOUR

T1 - Maternal effects in a wild songbird are environmentally plastic but only marginally alter the rate of adaptation

AU - Ramakers, Jip

AU - Cobben, Marleen

AU - Bijma, Piter

AU - Reed, T. E.

AU - Visser, M.E.

AU - Gienapp, P.

N1 - 6433, AnE; Data Archiving: data archived at Dryad

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - Despite ample evidence for the presence of maternal effects (MEs) in a variety of traits and strong theoretical indications for their evolutionary consequences, empirical evidence to what extent MEs can influence evolutionary responses to selection remains ambiguous. We tested the degree to which MEs can alter the rate of adaptation of a key life-history trait, clutch size, using an individual-based model approach parameterized with experimental data from a long-term study of great tits (Parus major). We modeled two types of MEs: (i) an environmentally plastic ME, in which the relationship between maternal and offspring clutch size depended on the maternal environment via offspring condition, and (ii) a fixed ME, in which this relationship was constant. Although both types of ME affected the rate of adaptation following an abrupt environmental shift, the overall effects were small. We conclude that evolutionary consequences of MEs are modest at best in our study system, at least for the trait and the particular type of ME we considered here. A closer link between theoretical and empirical work on MEs would hence be useful to obtain accurate predictions about the evolutionary consequences of MEs more generally.

AB - Despite ample evidence for the presence of maternal effects (MEs) in a variety of traits and strong theoretical indications for their evolutionary consequences, empirical evidence to what extent MEs can influence evolutionary responses to selection remains ambiguous. We tested the degree to which MEs can alter the rate of adaptation of a key life-history trait, clutch size, using an individual-based model approach parameterized with experimental data from a long-term study of great tits (Parus major). We modeled two types of MEs: (i) an environmentally plastic ME, in which the relationship between maternal and offspring clutch size depended on the maternal environment via offspring condition, and (ii) a fixed ME, in which this relationship was constant. Although both types of ME affected the rate of adaptation following an abrupt environmental shift, the overall effects were small. We conclude that evolutionary consequences of MEs are modest at best in our study system, at least for the trait and the particular type of ME we considered here. A closer link between theoretical and empirical work on MEs would hence be useful to obtain accurate predictions about the evolutionary consequences of MEs more generally.

KW - international

UR - https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4fv71

U2 - 10.1086/696847

DO - 10.1086/696847

M3 - Article

SN - 0003-0147

VL - 191

JO - American Naturalist

JF - American Naturalist

IS - 5

M1 - E-article

ER -