Abstract
In wild vertebrates, the increase of breeding success with advancing age has been extensively studied through laying date, clutch size, hatching success, and fledging success. However, to better evaluate the influence of age on reproductive performance in species with high reproductive success, assessing not only reproductive success but also other proxies of reproductive performance appear crucial. For example, the quality of developmental conditions and offspring phenotype can provide robust and complementary information on reproductive performance. In long-lived vertebrate species, several proxies of developmental conditions can be used to estimate the quality of the produced offspring (i.e., body size, body condition, corticosterone levels, and telomere length), and therefore, their probability to survive. By sampling chicks reared by known-aged mothers, we investigated the influence of maternal age on reproductive performance and offspring quality in a long-lived bird species, the snow petrel (Pagodroma nivea). Older females bred and left their chick alone earlier. Moreover, older females had larger chicks that grew faster, and ultimately, those chicks had a higher survival probability at the nest. In addition, older mothers produced chicks with a higher sensitivity to stress, as shown by moderately higher stress-induced corticosterone levels. Overall, our study demonstrated that maternal age is correlated to reproductive performance (hatching date, duration of the guarding period and survival) and offspring quality (body size, growth rate and sensitivity to stress), suggesting that older individuals provide better parental cares to their offspring. These results also demonstrate that maternal age can affect the offspring phenotype with potential long-term consequences.
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References
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Acknowledgements
We are indebted to A. Baduel and C. Sauser for their assistance in the field. We thank C. Ribout for her expertise and technical help in molecular sexing. We thank the two reviewers and the Handling editor who helped us improving this manuscript.
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Fieldwork was financially and logistically supported by the Institut Paul-Emile Victor (IPEV Project 109) and the Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises. S.M. Dupont was supported by a grant from the Conseil Général des Deux-Sèvres and the Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
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SMD, CB, OC, HW and FA originally formulated the idea, MP and CP generated molecular analyses, KD and CP achieved data curation, SMD and FA performed statistical analyses, SMD and FA wrote the manuscript; other authors provided editorial advice.
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Dupont, S.M., Barbraud, C., Chastel, O. et al. How does maternal age influence reproductive performance and offspring phenotype in the snow petrel (Pagodroma nivea)?. Oecologia 203, 63–78 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05451-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05451-5