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Flexible communication within bird families—The consequences of behavioral plasticity for parent–offspring coadaptation

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 t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Fresneau, Nolwenn, Müller, Wendt
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6342095/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30680149
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4796
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author Fresneau, Nolwenn
Müller, Wendt
author_facet Fresneau, Nolwenn
Müller, Wendt
author_sort Fresneau, Nolwenn
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-63420952019-01-24 Flexible communication within bird families—The consequences of behavioral plasticity for parent–offspring coadaptation Fresneau, Nolwenn Müller, Wendt Ecol Evol Original Research 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. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018-12-19 /pmc/articles/PMC6342095/ /pubmed/30680149 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4796 Text en © 2018 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Fresneau, Nolwenn
Müller, Wendt
Flexible communication within bird families—The consequences of behavioral plasticity for parent–offspring coadaptation
title Flexible communication within bird families—The consequences of behavioral plasticity for parent–offspring coadaptation
title_full Flexible communication within bird families—The consequences of behavioral plasticity for parent–offspring coadaptation
title_fullStr Flexible communication within bird families—The consequences of behavioral plasticity for parent–offspring coadaptation
title_full_unstemmed Flexible communication within bird families—The consequences of behavioral plasticity for parent–offspring coadaptation
title_short Flexible communication within bird families—The consequences of behavioral plasticity for parent–offspring coadaptation
title_sort flexible communication within bird families—the consequences of behavioral plasticity for parent–offspring coadaptation
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6342095/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30680149
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4796
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