Access to resources buffers against effects of current reproduction on future ability to provide care in a burying beetle.

ABSTRACT: Studies investigating the trade-off between current and future reproduction often find that increased allocation to current reproduction is associated with a reduction in the number or quality of future offspring. In species that provide parental care, this effect on future offspring may be mediated through a reduced future ability to provide care. Here, we test this idea in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, a species in which parents shift the cost of reproduction toward future offspring and provide elaborate parental care. We manipulated brood size to alter the costs females experienced in association with current reproduction and measured the level of parental care during a subsequent breeding attempt. Given that these beetles breed on carcasses of small vertebrates, i

SUBMITTER: Lambert GA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9461345 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature