title: Macroecology of parental care in arthropods: higher mortality risk leads to higher benefits of offspring protection in tropical climates.
abstract: The intensity of biotic interactions varies around the world, in such a way that mortality risk imposed by natural enemies is usually higher in the tropics. A major role of offspring attendance is protection against natural enemies, so the benefits of this behaviour should be higher in tropical regions. We tested this macroecological prediction with a meta-regression of field experiments in which the mortality of guarded and unguarded broods was compared in arthropods. Mortality of unguarded broods was higher, and parental care was more beneficial, in warmer, less seasonal environments. Moreover, in these same environments, additional lines of defence further reduced offspring mortality, implying that offspring attendance alone is not enough to deter natural enemies in tropical regions. These results help to explain the high frequency of parental care among tropical species and how biotic interactions influence the occurrence of parental care over large geographic scales. Finally, our findings reveal that additional lines of defences - an oftentimes neglected component of parental care - have an important effect on the covariation between the benefits of parental care and the climate-mediated mortality risk imposed by natural enemies.
authors.affiliation: LAGE do Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, travessa 14, n° 101, Cid. Universitária, 05508-090, São Paulo, Brazil.|BECO do Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, travessa 14, n° 101, Cid. Universitária, 05508-090, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Eduardo S A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0434-3655
authors.initials: ESA
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.affiliation: LAGE do Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, travessa 14, n° 101, Cid. Universitária, 05508-090, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Pedro P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Bueno
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Sciences, University of Hull, Hull, HU6 7RX, U.K.
authors.forename: James D J
authors.initials: JDJ
authors.lastname: Gilbert
authors.affiliation: LAGE do Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, travessa 14, n° 101, Cid. Universitária, 05508-090, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Glauco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Machado
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001181:Arthropods / Q000502:physiology*; D004463:Ecology; D009425:Nesting Behavior; D014329:Tropical Climate
keywords: abiotic factors; biotic interactions; egg attendance; egg coating; evapotranspiration; meta-regression; nest; parasitism; parental removal; predation