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Sources of variation in maternal allocation in a long‐lived mammal

1. Life history theory predicts allocation of energy to reproduction varies with maternal age, but additional maternal features may be important to the allocation of energy to reproduction. 2. We aimed to characterize age‐specific variation in maternal allocation and assess the relationship between...

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Autores principales: Macdonald, Kaitlin R., Rotella, Jay J., Garrott, Robert A., Link, William A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7497196/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32356304
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13243
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author Macdonald, Kaitlin R.
Rotella, Jay J.
Garrott, Robert A.
Link, William A.
author_facet Macdonald, Kaitlin R.
Rotella, Jay J.
Garrott, Robert A.
Link, William A.
author_sort Macdonald, Kaitlin R.
collection PubMed
description 1. Life history theory predicts allocation of energy to reproduction varies with maternal age, but additional maternal features may be important to the allocation of energy to reproduction. 2. We aimed to characterize age‐specific variation in maternal allocation and assess the relationship between maternal allocation and other static and dynamic maternal features. 3. Mass measurements of 531 mothers and pups were used with Bayesian hierarchical models to explain the relationship between diverse maternal attributes and both the proportion of mass allocated by Weddell seal mothers, and the efficiency of mass transfer from mother to pup during lactation as well as the weaning mass of pups. 4. Our results demonstrated that maternal mass was strongly and positively associated with the relative reserves allocated by a mother and a pup's weaning mass but that the efficiency of mass transfer declines with maternal parturition mass. Birthdate was positively associated with proportion mass allocation and pup weaning mass, but mass transfer efficiency was predicted to be highest at the mean birthdate. The relative allocation of maternal reserves declined with maternal age but the efficiency of mass transfer to pups increases, suggestive of selective disappearance of poor‐quality mothers. 5. These findings highlight the importance of considering multiple maternal features when assessing variation in maternal allocation.
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spelling pubmed-74971962020-09-25 Sources of variation in maternal allocation in a long‐lived mammal Macdonald, Kaitlin R. Rotella, Jay J. Garrott, Robert A. Link, William A. J Anim Ecol Life Histories 1. Life history theory predicts allocation of energy to reproduction varies with maternal age, but additional maternal features may be important to the allocation of energy to reproduction. 2. We aimed to characterize age‐specific variation in maternal allocation and assess the relationship between maternal allocation and other static and dynamic maternal features. 3. Mass measurements of 531 mothers and pups were used with Bayesian hierarchical models to explain the relationship between diverse maternal attributes and both the proportion of mass allocated by Weddell seal mothers, and the efficiency of mass transfer from mother to pup during lactation as well as the weaning mass of pups. 4. Our results demonstrated that maternal mass was strongly and positively associated with the relative reserves allocated by a mother and a pup's weaning mass but that the efficiency of mass transfer declines with maternal parturition mass. Birthdate was positively associated with proportion mass allocation and pup weaning mass, but mass transfer efficiency was predicted to be highest at the mean birthdate. The relative allocation of maternal reserves declined with maternal age but the efficiency of mass transfer to pups increases, suggestive of selective disappearance of poor‐quality mothers. 5. These findings highlight the importance of considering multiple maternal features when assessing variation in maternal allocation. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020-06-29 2020-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7497196/ /pubmed/32356304 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13243 Text en © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society 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 Life Histories
Macdonald, Kaitlin R.
Rotella, Jay J.
Garrott, Robert A.
Link, William A.
Sources of variation in maternal allocation in a long‐lived mammal
title Sources of variation in maternal allocation in a long‐lived mammal
title_full Sources of variation in maternal allocation in a long‐lived mammal
title_fullStr Sources of variation in maternal allocation in a long‐lived mammal
title_full_unstemmed Sources of variation in maternal allocation in a long‐lived mammal
title_short Sources of variation in maternal allocation in a long‐lived mammal
title_sort sources of variation in maternal allocation in a long‐lived mammal
topic Life Histories
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7497196/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32356304
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13243
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