Complex relationships between climate and reproduction in a resident montane bird.

ABSTRACT: Animals use climate-related environmental cues to fine-tune breeding timing and investment to match peak food availability. In birds, spring temperature is a commonly documented cue used to initiate breeding, but with global climate change, organisms are experiencing both directional changes in ambient temperatures and extreme year-to-year precipitation fluctuations. Montane environments exhibit complex climate patterns where temperatures and precipitation change along elevational gradients, and where exacerbated annual variation in precipitation has resulted in extreme swings between heavy snow and drought. We used 10 years of data to investigate how annual variation in climatic conditions is associated with differences in breeding phenology and reproductive performance in resident mounta

SUBMITTER: Whitenack LE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10282579 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature