Hatching Failure Increases with Severity of Population Bottlenecks in Birds

Severe bottlenecks can reduce genetic diversity and increase in-breeding as individuals are forced to mate with close relatives, but it is unknown at what minimum population size the negative fitness consequences of bottlenecks are expressed. The New Zealand avifauna contains a large number of speci...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2004-01, Vol.101 (2), p.558-561
Main Authors: Briskie, James V., Mackintosh, Myles
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal reproduction
Animals
Aves
Biological Sciences
Birds
Birds - growth & development
Birds - physiology
Ecological competition
Ecology
Endangered species
Genetic Variation
Genetics
Hatching
Inbreeding
Introduced species
Population Dynamics
Population genetics
Population growth
Population size
Reproduction
Species populations
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Summary:Severe bottlenecks can reduce genetic diversity and increase in-breeding as individuals are forced to mate with close relatives, but it is unknown at what minimum population size the negative fitness consequences of bottlenecks are expressed. The New Zealand avifauna contains a large number of species that have gone through bottlenecks of varying severity, providing an exceptional opportunity to test this question by using the comparative method. Using decreased hatchability as a measure of fitness costs, we found that hatching failure was significantly greater among both native and introduced species that had passed through bottlenecks of
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0305103101