Low-temperature nights delay the timing of breeding in a wild songbird

Liu, Chen-Yang1; Merilae, Juha2; Liu, Yang1; Lv, Lei1,3

2023

10.1111/jav.03084

JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY   Impact Factor & Quartile

0908-8857

1600-048X

Global climate change has posed widespread challenges to the ecological process critical to the fitness of many wild organisms, such as reproductive phenology. Many bird species have advanced their reproductive phenology in response to the increases in spring temperatures. However, the mechanism of how climate influences the timing of breeding is still often unclear in many species. We explored the relationship between the timing of breeding and spring temperatures based on 14 years of data on hair-crested drongos Dicrurus hottentottus in the wild. By applying a 'sliding window' approach, we aimed to identify the time window and weather variable that best explains the timing of breeding at both population and individual levels. We found that the more nights with a minimum temperature below 17 degrees C, around three weeks earlier than the peak reproduction, delayed the breeding time. Low night temperatures may force females to allocate more energy to thermoregulation and therefore physiologically constrain egg-laying. Although annual minimum and maximum temperatures have increased over the study period, the timing of breeding showed no trend as there was no change in the number of low-temperature nights in the relevant period across years. The repeatability of the laying date for individual females (R = 0.211) and across the years (R = 0.270) were low indicating that drongos were flexible in adjusting their breeding phenology to environmental variation. These results suggest an effect of low night temperature on avian breeding phenology. This effect may apply commonly across bird species considering shared physiological constraints.

breeding experience breeding phenology global warming minimum temperature sensitive period

SCI

English

Corresponding

National Natural Science Foundation of China["32070462","31702026"]

Zoology

Ornithology

WOS:000916448100001

WILEY

PLANT & ANIMAL SCIENCE

Web of Science

1.Sun Yat Sen Univ, Sch Ecol, State Key Lab Biocontrol, Guangzhou, Peoples R China
2.Univ Hong Kong, Sch Biol Sci Area Ecol & Biodivers, Hong Kong, Peoples R China
3.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Environm Sci & Engn, Shenzhen, Peoples R China

Liu, Chen-Yang,Merilae, Juha,Liu, Yang,et al. Low-temperature nights delay the timing of breeding in a wild songbird[J]. JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY,2023.

Liu, Chen-Yang,Merilae, Juha,Liu, Yang,&Lv, Lei.(2023).Low-temperature nights delay the timing of breeding in a wild songbird.JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY.

Liu, Chen-Yang,et al."Low-temperature nights delay the timing of breeding in a wild songbird".JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY (2023).