Trade-offs between offspring fitness and future reproduction of adult female black brent.
1. Successful reproduction requires numerous decisions, and some of which may require trade-offs between current and future reproduction. We studied effects of choice of foraging patches on gosling growth and future breeding by mothers in black brent (Branta bernicla nigricans) geese. 2. Specific foraging areas consistently produced high-quality goslings over 21 years. We found a consistent ranking of gosling mass, corrected for age, across brood rearing areas (BRAs) and years [Akaike model weights, Σw(i)  = 1·00 for models including additive effects of BRA and year]. Growth of goslings largely determines their future fitness, so areas where goslings grew most rapidly also produced goslings with the highest mean fitness. 3. We used a multistate robust design capture-mark-recapture approach to estimate the probability of transitioning from a breeding state to a non-breeding (unobservable) state as a function of quality of BRA. 4. In the best supported model, transition from a breeding state to a non-breeding state was positively related to gosling growth rates across BRAs. Thus, future reproduction was lower for females using BRAs that produced higher-quality goslings. Our results are consistent with trade-offs by individual brent between fitness of their current offspring and their own reproductive value.
Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, University of Nevada-Reno, 1000 Valley Road, Reno, NV 89512, USA. chris_nicolai@fws.gov
Christopher A
CA
Nicolai
James S
JS
Sedinger
D000413:Alaska; D000818:Animals; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005777:Geese / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D016014:Linear Models; D008136:Longevity; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012098:Reproduction; D012621:Seasons