Reduced habitat quality increases intrinsic but not ecological costs of reproduction.

ABSTRACT: Although the costs of reproduction are predicted to vary with the quality of the breeding habitat thereby affecting population dynamics and life-history trade-offs, empirical evidence for this pattern remains sparse and equivocal. Costs of reproduction can operate through immediate ecological mechanisms or through delayed intrinsic mechanisms. Ignoring these separate pathways might hinder the identification of costs and the understanding of their consequences. We experimentally investigated the survival costs of reproduction for adult little owls (Athene noctua) within a gradient of habitat quality. We supplemented food to nestlings, thereby relieving the parents' effort for brood provisioning. We used radio-tracking and Bayesian multistate modeling based on marked recapture and dea

SUBMITTER: Michel VT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9019141 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature