Experimental warming during incubation improves cold tolerance of blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) chicks.

ABSTRACT: Climate change and increasing air temperature may alter environmental conditions for developing birds, with a range of phenotypic consequences for offspring. The thermal environment during incubation may affect the trade-off between growth and thermoregulation, but the effects of temperature on the ontogeny of endothermy are not fully understood. Therefore, we experimentally tested whether heating the nest cup of Eurasian blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) during incubation would influence cold tolerance of the chicks after hatching. Chicks from both heated and control nests showed a decrease in cooling rate with age as they became increasingly endothermic and homeothermic. However, chicks from previously heated nests cooled at a lower rate per unit surface area and from across the whole body

SUBMITTER: Page JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9206450 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature