Impact of rainfall on the offspring PHA-response and body mass in the Eurasian blue tit
Corresponding Author
Emilia Grzędzicka
Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland
Correspondence
Emilia Grzędzicka, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa Street 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Emilia Grzędzicka
Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland
Correspondence
Emilia Grzędzicka, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa Street 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Animals are exposed to the more frequent stressful weather events that may impact parental decisions and their investment in offspring. This study examines whether and how heavy rainfall influences the birds' incubation behavior, hatching date, food volume brought to the nests, the offspring's immune response to phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) and their body mass during the post-hatch period. The research was conducted on the Eurasian blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus, living in a nest-box area in the Niepołomice Forest (near Kraków, S Poland) during 3 years: 2009, 2010 and 2011. Rainfall did not directly affect the incubation period, but nestlings from eggs that incubated longer had a higher mass. Later hatching date was beneficial for the chicks' body mass, while earlier hatched chicks responded more efficiently to the PHA antigen. Although the intensity of rainfall did not directly affect the volume of food brought by adults to the chicks, its greater amount was beneficial for both indicators of their condition. With a more intensive rainfall, the weaker chicks responded to the PHA antigen, but achieved greater body mass. In the next years, it can be expected that heavy rainfall will become an increasingly important environmental cue, based on which birds will adapt their reproduction, and which will affect population trends, as the immune response weakened during the intensive rainfall is a survival indicator.
Supporting Information
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ere1005-sup-0001-AppendixS1.pdfPDF document, 85.9 KB |
TABLE S1 The average 24 hr sum of rainfall (mm) from 3 years of research, which was compared using 10-day periods. The means, standard errors (SE), minimum and maximum values and results of Bartlett's test are given TABLE S2. The Eurasian blue tit laying dates (April 1 = day 1), hatching dates (May 1 = day 1), periods of incubation and volume of food brought by adults to the nests from 3 years of research. The means, standard errors (SE), minimum and maximum values are given TABLE S3. Wing web swelling, body mass and tarsus length of the Eurasian blue tit offspring from 3 years. In the case of wing web swelling—means were calculated from six nestlings per nest; in the case of growth rate parameters—averages are based on data from all nestlings. The means, standard errors (SE), minimum and maximum values are given TABLE S4. Results of GLMM models showing the influences of hatching date, incubation period, rainfall and food volume on the Eurasian blue tit offspring's wing web swelling (phytohaemagglutinin [PHA]-response) and body mass during 3 years, with “nest ID” and “year” as the random effects, where SE—standard error, df—degrees of freedom, R2—measure of model fitting (n = 342 nestlings from 57 nests). |
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