Variable Breeding Strategies in a Fluctuating Environment: A Feeding Experiment in Eastern Chipmunks

IF 2.3 2区 生物学 Q2 ECOLOGY Ecology and Evolution Pub Date : 2025-03-17 DOI:10.1002/ece3.71076
François Briau, Dany Garant, Denis Réale, Mathilde L. Tissier, Patrick Bergeron
{"title":"Variable Breeding Strategies in a Fluctuating Environment: A Feeding Experiment in Eastern Chipmunks","authors":"François Briau,&nbsp;Dany Garant,&nbsp;Denis Réale,&nbsp;Mathilde L. Tissier,&nbsp;Patrick Bergeron","doi":"10.1002/ece3.71076","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Small mammals inhabiting pulsed-resource environments, such as forests with intermittent seed masting of trees, often adjust their allocation to reproduction with the drastic fluctuations in food availability. They could, for instance, plastically allocate capital resources to reproduction when food availability is low or adopt an income breeding strategy when food availability is high. We investigated how eastern chipmunks (<i>Tamias striatus</i>), a food-hoarding rodent strongly relying on the masting of beech trees (<i>Fagus grandifolia</i>), anticipate and respond to food pulses to reproduce. We supplemented a study site with sunflower seeds to buffer food availability for 2 years that were characterized by a non-mast and a beech mast. We monitored chipmunks exploitation of the feeders, body mass, and reproductive activity. We tested if food-supplemented females would reproduce in the absence of a beech mast. We compared those results with two control sites and 10 years of data on chipmunk reproduction. The probability of summer estrus significantly increased with the exploitation of feeders compared to the controls. Exploiting the feeders had a stronger effect than body mass on the probability of estrus. Still, beech masting had a broader effect on the probability of estrus across all sites than exploiting the feeders. Although most supplemented females showed oestrus during the non-mast year, as opposed to non-supplemented females, they did not fully reproduce despite their favorable body condition and the extensive hoard they accumulated. Those results suggest that summer reproduction in eastern chipmunks is not only financed by current food availability, revealing the complexity of plastic resource allocation in fluctuating environments.</p>","PeriodicalId":11467,"journal":{"name":"Ecology and Evolution","volume":"15 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ece3.71076","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ecology and Evolution","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.71076","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Small mammals inhabiting pulsed-resource environments, such as forests with intermittent seed masting of trees, often adjust their allocation to reproduction with the drastic fluctuations in food availability. They could, for instance, plastically allocate capital resources to reproduction when food availability is low or adopt an income breeding strategy when food availability is high. We investigated how eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus), a food-hoarding rodent strongly relying on the masting of beech trees (Fagus grandifolia), anticipate and respond to food pulses to reproduce. We supplemented a study site with sunflower seeds to buffer food availability for 2 years that were characterized by a non-mast and a beech mast. We monitored chipmunks exploitation of the feeders, body mass, and reproductive activity. We tested if food-supplemented females would reproduce in the absence of a beech mast. We compared those results with two control sites and 10 years of data on chipmunk reproduction. The probability of summer estrus significantly increased with the exploitation of feeders compared to the controls. Exploiting the feeders had a stronger effect than body mass on the probability of estrus. Still, beech masting had a broader effect on the probability of estrus across all sites than exploiting the feeders. Although most supplemented females showed oestrus during the non-mast year, as opposed to non-supplemented females, they did not fully reproduce despite their favorable body condition and the extensive hoard they accumulated. Those results suggest that summer reproduction in eastern chipmunks is not only financed by current food availability, revealing the complexity of plastic resource allocation in fluctuating environments.

Abstract Image

查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
CiteScore
4.40
自引率
3.80%
发文量
1027
审稿时长
3-6 weeks
期刊介绍: Ecology and Evolution is the peer reviewed journal for rapid dissemination of research in all areas of ecology, evolution and conservation science. The journal gives priority to quality research reports, theoretical or empirical, that develop our understanding of organisms and their diversity, interactions between them, and the natural environment. Ecology and Evolution gives prompt and equal consideration to papers reporting theoretical, experimental, applied and descriptive work in terrestrial and aquatic environments. The journal will consider submissions across taxa in areas including but not limited to micro and macro ecological and evolutionary processes, characteristics of and interactions between individuals, populations, communities and the environment, physiological responses to environmental change, population genetics and phylogenetics, relatedness and kin selection, life histories, systematics and taxonomy, conservation genetics, extinction, speciation, adaption, behaviour, biodiversity, species abundance, macroecology, population and ecosystem dynamics, and conservation policy.
期刊最新文献
Divergent Selection Promotes Intraspecific Genomic Differentiation in Spodoptera littoralis With Possible Involvement in Detoxification Climate and Dispersal Ability Limit Future Habitats for Gila Monsters in the Mojave Desert Local Genetic Adaptations Among Remnant Populations of British Common Juniper, Juniperus communis, Indicated by a Common Garden Trial Variable Breeding Strategies in a Fluctuating Environment: A Feeding Experiment in Eastern Chipmunks Mitochondrial Genomes of Six Discogobio Species (Teleostei, Cyprinidae) and Their Phylogenetic Analysis
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1