The influence of weather conditions during gestation on life histories in a wild Arctic ungulate.

ABSTRACT: The internal predictive adaptive response (internal PAR) hypothesis predicts that individuals born in poor conditions should start to reproduce earlier if they are likely to have reduced performance in later life. However, whether this is the case remains unexplored in wild populations. Here, we use longitudinal data from a long-term study of Svalbard reindeer to examine age-related changes in adult female life-history responses to environmental conditions experienced in utero as indexed by rain-on-snow (ROS_utero). We show that females experiencing high ROS_utero had reduced reproductive success only from 7 years of age, independent of early reproduction. These individuals were able to maintain the same annual reproductive success between 2 and 6 years as phenotypicall

SUBMITTER: Douhard M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5095383 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature