Breeding Decisions and Output Are Correlated with Both Temperature and Rainfall in an Arid-region Passerine, the Sociable Weaver

Overview

Journal R Soc Open Sci

Specialty Science

Date 2017 Oct 10

PMID 28989782

Citations 2

Authors

Rafael Mares

Claire Doutrelant

Matthieu Paquet

Claire N Spottiswoode

Rita Covas

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Animal reproductive cycles are commonly triggered by environmental cues of favourable breeding conditions. In arid environments, rainfall may be the most conspicuous cue, but the effects on reproduction of the high inter- and intra-annual variation in temperature remain poorly understood, despite being relevant to the current context of global warming. Here, we conducted a multiyear examination of the relationships between a suite of measures of temperature and rainfall, and the onset and length of the breeding season, the probability of breeding and reproductive output in an arid-region passerine, the sociable weaver (). As expected, reproductive output increased with rainfall, yet specific relationships were conditional on the timing of rainfall: clutch production was correlated with rainfall throughout the season, whereas fledgling production was correlated with early summer rainfall. Moreover, we reveal novel correlations between aspects of breeding and temperature, indicative of earlier laying dates after warmer springs, and longer breeding seasons during cooler summers. These results have implications for understanding population trends under current climate change scenarios and call for more studies on the role of temperature in reproduction beyond those conducted on temperate-region species.

Citing Articles

Egg components and offspring survival vary with group size and laying order in a cooperative breeder.

Fortuna R, Paquet M, Biard C, Elard L, Ferreira A, Leroux-Coyaux M Oecologia. 2023; 202(1):129-142.

PMID: 37148378 PMC: 10229689. DOI: 10.1007/s00442-023-05379-w.

Disentangling climatic and nest predator impact on reproductive output reveals adverse high-temperature effects regardless of helper number in an arid-region cooperative bird.

DAmelio P, Ferreira A, Fortuna R, Paquet M, Silva L, Theron F Ecol Lett. 2021; 25(1):151-162.

PMID: 34787354 PMC: 9299450. DOI: 10.1111/ele.13913.

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