title: Sources of (co)variation in alternative siring routes available to male great tits (Parus major).
abstract: Males of socially monogamous species can increase their siring success via within-pair and extra-pair fertilizations. In this study, we focused on the different sources of (co)variation between these siring routes, and asked how each contributes to total siring success. We quantified the fertilization routes to siring success, as well as behaviors that have been hypothesized to affect siring success, over a five-year period for a wild population of great tits Parus major. We considered siring success and its fertilization routes as "interactive phenotypes" arising from phenotypic contributions of both members of the social pair. We show that siring success is strongly affected by the fecundity of the social (female) partner. We also demonstrate that a strong positive correlation between extra-pair fertilization success and paternity loss likely constrains the evolution of these two routes. Moreover, we show that more explorative and aggressive males had less extra-pair fertilizations, whereas more explorative females laid larger clutches. This study thus demonstrates that (co)variation in siring routes is caused by multiple factors not necessarily related to characteristics of males. We thereby highlight the importance of acknowledging the multilevel structure of male fertilization routes when studying the evolution of male mating strategies.
authors.affiliation: Research Group Evolutionary Ecology of Variation, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany. yimencr@gmail.com.|Department of Behavioral Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany. yimencr@gmail.com.|Current Address: Center for Biodiversity Dynamics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. yimencr@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yimen G
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Araya-Ajoy
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany.
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuhn
authors.affiliation: Research Group Evolutionary Ecology of Variation, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany.|Current Address: Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), Department of Coastal Studies (COS), Utrecht University, Den Burg, Texel, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Kimberley J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Mathot
authors.affiliation: Research Group Evolutionary Ecology of Variation, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mouchet
authors.affiliation: Research Group Evolutionary Ecology of Variation, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany.|Current Address: Department of Biology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky.
authors.forename: Ariane
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mutzel
authors.affiliation: Research Group Evolutionary Ecology of Variation, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany.|Current Address: Conservation Ecology Group, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nicolaus
authors.affiliation: Research Group Evolutionary Ecology of Variation, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany.
authors.forename: Jan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Wijmenga
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany.
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kempenaers
authors.affiliation: Research Group Evolutionary Ecology of Variation, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany.|Behavioural Ecology, Department of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Niels J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Dingemanse
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D005306:Fertilization; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008297:Male; D046109:Passeriformes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal
keywords: Aggressiveness; extra-pair paternity; fertilization success; interacting phenotypes; life-history trade-offs; plasticity; reproductive strategy