Scale-Dependent Phenological Synchrony between Songbirds and Their Caterpillar Food Source

In seasonal environments, the timing of reproduction has important fitness consequences. Our current understanding of the determinants of reproductive phenology in natural systems is limited because studies often ignore the spatial scale on which animals interact with their environment. When animals...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American naturalist 2015-07, Vol.186 (1), p.84-97
Main Authors: Hinks, Amy E., Cole, Ella F., Daniels, Katherine J., Wilkin, Teddy A., Nakagawa, Shinichi, Sheldon, Ben C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Physiological
Animal age determination
Animals
Aviculture
Bird nesting
Birds
Breeding
Caterpillars
Ecosystem
England
Female
Food Chain
Food chains
Insects
Larva
Leaf development
Leaves
Male
Modeling
Moths
Parus major
Passeriformes - physiology
Phenology
Quercus
Reproduction
Seasons
Time Factors
Trees
Vegetation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In seasonal environments, the timing of reproduction has important fitness consequences. Our current understanding of the determinants of reproductive phenology in natural systems is limited because studies often ignore the spatial scale on which animals interact with their environment. When animals use a restricted amount of space and the phenology of resources is spatially variable, selection may favor sensitivity to small-scale environmental variation. Population-level studies of how songbirds track the changing phenology of their food source have been influential in explaining how populations adjust to changing climates but have largely ignored the spatial scale at which phenology varies. We explored whether individual great tits (Parus major) synchronize their breeding with phenological events in their local environment and investigated the spatial scale at which this occurs. We demonstrate marked variation in the timing of food availability, at a spatial scale relevant to individual birds, and that such local variation predicts the breeding phenology of individuals. Using a 45-year data set, we show that measures of vegetation phenology at very local scales are the most important predictors of timing of breeding within years, suggesting that birds can fine-tune their phenology to that of other trophic levels. Knowledge of the determinants of variation in reproductive behavior at different spatial scales is likely to be critical in understanding how selection operates on breeding phenology in natural populations.
ISSN:0003-0147
1537-5323
DOI:10.1086/681572