We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Flexible communication within bird families—The consequences of behavioral plasticity for parent–offspring coadaptation.
- Authors
Fresneau, Nolwenn; Müller, Wendt
- Abstract
Offspring are selected to demand more resources than what is optimal for their parents to provide, which results in a complex and dynamic interplay during parental care. Parent–offspring communication often involves conspicuous begging by the offspring which triggers a parental response, typically the transfer of food. So begging and parental provisioning reciprocally influence each other and are therefore expected to coevolve. There is indeed empirical evidence for covariation of offspring begging and parental provisioning at the phenotypic level. However, whether this reflects genetic correlations of mean levels of behaviors or a covariation of the slopes of offspring demand and parental supply functions (= behavioral plasticity) is not known. The latter has gone rather unnoticed—despite the obvious dynamics of parent–offspring communication. In this study, we measured parental provisioning and begging behavior at two different hunger levels using canaries (Serinus canaria) as a model species. This enabled us to simultaneously study the plastic responses of the parents and the offspring to changes in offspring need. We first tested whether parent and offspring behaviors covary phenotypically. Then, using a covariance partitioning approach, we estimated whether the covariance predominantly occurred at a between‐nest level (i.e., indicating a fixed strategy) or at a within‐nest level (i.e., reflecting a flexible strategy). We found positive phenotypic covariation of offspring begging and parental provisioning, confirming previous evidence. Yet, this phenotypic covariation was mainly driven by a covariance at the within‐nest level. That is parental and offspring behaviors covary because of a plastic behavioral coadjustment, indicating that behavioral plasticity could be a main driver of parent–offspring coadaptation. In this study, we measured parental provisioning and begging behavior at two different hunger levels using canaries (Serinus canaria) as a model species. Then, using a covariance partitioning approach, we estimated whether the covariance predominantly occurred at a between‐nest level (i.e., indicating a fixed strategy) or at a within‐nest level (i.e., reflecting a flexible strategy). We found positive phenotypic covariation of offspring begging and parental provisioning, mainly driven by a covariance at the within‐nest level, showing a plastic behavioral coadjustment.
- Subjects
CANARIES; COEVOLUTION; SPECIES diversity; PHENOTYPIC plasticity; GENETIC correlations
- Publication
Ecology & Evolution (20457758), 2019, Vol 9, Issue 1, p693
- ISSN
2045-7758
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/ece3.4796