Senescence and costs of reproduction in the life history of a small precocial species
Abstract Species following a fast life history are expected to express fitness costs mainly as increased mortality, while slow‐lived species should suffer fertility costs. Because observational studies have limited power to disentangle intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing senescence, we manip...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5272 |
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doaj-5f3bb89644aa49c38434a7866ac6e39e2021-04-02T10:57:54ZengWileyEcology and Evolution2045-77582019-06-019127069707910.1002/ece3.5272Senescence and costs of reproduction in the life history of a small precocial speciesFritz Trillmich0Edda Geißler1Anja Guenther2Animal Behaviour University of Bielefeld Bielefeld GermanyAnimal Behaviour University of Bielefeld Bielefeld GermanyAnimal Behaviour University of Bielefeld Bielefeld GermanyAbstract Species following a fast life history are expected to express fitness costs mainly as increased mortality, while slow‐lived species should suffer fertility costs. Because observational studies have limited power to disentangle intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing senescence, we manipulated reproductive effort experimentally in the cavy (Cavia aperea) which produces extremely precocial young. We created two experimental groups: One was allowed continuous reproduction (CR) and the other intermittent reproduction (IR) by removing males at regular intervals. We predicted that the CR females should senesce (and die) earlier and produce either fewer and/or smaller, slower growing offspring per litter than those of the IR group. CR females had 16% more litters during three years than IR females. CR females increased mass and body condition more steeply and both remained higher until the experiment ended. Female survival showed no group difference. Reproductive senescence in litter size, litter mass, and reproductive effort (litter mass/maternal mass) began after about 600 days and was slightly stronger in CR than IR females. Litter size, litter mass, and offspring survival declined with maternal age and were influenced by seasonality. IR females decreased reproductive effort less during cold seasons and only at higher age than CR females. Nevertheless, offspring winter mortality was higher in IR females. Our results show small costs of reproduction despite high reproductive effort, suggesting that under ad libitum food conditions costs depend largely on internal regulation of allocation decisions.https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5272postnatal development and mortalityreproductive effortreproductive seasonalityreproductive senescencetrade‐off |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Fritz Trillmich Edda Geißler Anja Guenther |
spellingShingle |
Fritz Trillmich Edda Geißler Anja Guenther Senescence and costs of reproduction in the life history of a small precocial species Ecology and Evolution postnatal development and mortality reproductive effort reproductive seasonality reproductive senescence trade‐off |
author_facet |
Fritz Trillmich Edda Geißler Anja Guenther |
author_sort |
Fritz Trillmich |
title |
Senescence and costs of reproduction in the life history of a small precocial species |
title_short |
Senescence and costs of reproduction in the life history of a small precocial species |
title_full |
Senescence and costs of reproduction in the life history of a small precocial species |
title_fullStr |
Senescence and costs of reproduction in the life history of a small precocial species |
title_full_unstemmed |
Senescence and costs of reproduction in the life history of a small precocial species |
title_sort |
senescence and costs of reproduction in the life history of a small precocial species |
publisher |
Wiley |
series |
Ecology and Evolution |
issn |
2045-7758 |
publishDate |
2019-06-01 |
description |
Abstract Species following a fast life history are expected to express fitness costs mainly as increased mortality, while slow‐lived species should suffer fertility costs. Because observational studies have limited power to disentangle intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing senescence, we manipulated reproductive effort experimentally in the cavy (Cavia aperea) which produces extremely precocial young. We created two experimental groups: One was allowed continuous reproduction (CR) and the other intermittent reproduction (IR) by removing males at regular intervals. We predicted that the CR females should senesce (and die) earlier and produce either fewer and/or smaller, slower growing offspring per litter than those of the IR group. CR females had 16% more litters during three years than IR females. CR females increased mass and body condition more steeply and both remained higher until the experiment ended. Female survival showed no group difference. Reproductive senescence in litter size, litter mass, and reproductive effort (litter mass/maternal mass) began after about 600 days and was slightly stronger in CR than IR females. Litter size, litter mass, and offspring survival declined with maternal age and were influenced by seasonality. IR females decreased reproductive effort less during cold seasons and only at higher age than CR females. Nevertheless, offspring winter mortality was higher in IR females. Our results show small costs of reproduction despite high reproductive effort, suggesting that under ad libitum food conditions costs depend largely on internal regulation of allocation decisions. |
topic |
postnatal development and mortality reproductive effort reproductive seasonality reproductive senescence trade‐off |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5272 |
work_keys_str_mv |
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