Are long-term widespread avian body size changes related to food availability? A test using contemporaneous changes in carotenoid-based color.

ABSTRACT: Recent changes in global climate have been linked with changes in animal body size. While declines in body size are commonly explained as an adaptive thermoregulatory response to climate warming, many species do not decline in size, and alternative explanations for size change exist. One possibility is that temporal changes in animal body size are driven by changes in environmental productivity and food availability. This hypothesis is difficult to test due to the lack of suitable estimates that go back in time. Here, we use an alternative, indirect, approach and assess whether continent-wide changes over the previous 100 years in body size in 15 species of Australian birds are associated with changes in their yellow carotenoid-based plumage coloration. This type of coloration is strongly

SUBMITTER: Little R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5415506 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature