title: Paternal but not maternal age influences early-life performance of offspring in a long-lived seabird.
abstract: Variability in demographic traits between individuals within populations has profound implications for both evolutionary processes and population dynamics. Parental effects as a source of non-genetic inheritance are important processes to consider to understand the causes of individual variation. In iteroparous species, parental age is known to influence strongly reproductive success and offspring quality, but consequences on an offspring fitness component after independence are much less studied. Based on 37 years longitudinal monitoring of a long-lived seabird, the wandering albatross, we investigate delayed effects of parental age on offspring fitness components. We provide evidence that parental age influences offspring performance beyond the age of independence. By distinguishing maternal and paternal age effects, we demonstrate that paternal age, but not maternal age, impacts negatively post-fledging offspring performance.
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372 CNRS/Univ La Rochelle, Villiers-en-Bois 79360, France fay.remi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Rémi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fay
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372 CNRS/Univ La Rochelle, Villiers-en-Bois 79360, France.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barbraud
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372 CNRS/Univ La Rochelle, Villiers-en-Bois 79360, France.
authors.forename: Karine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Delord
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372 CNRS/Univ La Rochelle, Villiers-en-Bois 79360, France.
authors.forename: Henri
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Weimerskirch
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D007195:Indian Ocean Islands; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: Diomedea exulans; ageing; capture–mark–recapture; juvenile survival; long-term effects