Projects per year
Abstract
An improved understanding of life-history responses to current environmental variability is required to predict species-specific responses to anthopogenic climate change. Previous research has suggested that cooperation in social groups may buffer individuals against some of the negative effects of unpredictable climates. We use a 15-year dataset on a cooperative breeding arid zone bird, the southern pied babbler Turdoides bicolor, to test (i) whether environmental conditions and group size correlate with survival of young during three development stages (egg, nestling, fledgling) and (ii) whether group size mitigates the impacts of adverse environmental conditions on survival of young. Exposure to high mean daily maximum temperatures (mean Tmax) during early development was associated with reduced survival probabilities of young in all three development stages. No young survived when mean Tmax > 38°C, across all group sizes. Low survival of young at high temperatures has broad implications for recruitment and population persistence in avian communities given the rapid pace of advancing climate change. Impacts of high temperatures on survival of young were not moderated by group size, suggesting that the availability of more helpers in a group is unlikely to buffer against compromised offspring survival as average and maximum temperatures increase with rapid anthropogenic climate change.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 20201140 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: series B |
Volume | 287 |
Issue number | 1931 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 29 Jul 2020 |
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Dive into the research topics of 'High temperatures drive offspring mortality in a cooperatively breeding bird'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Datasets
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High temperatures drive offspring mortality in a cooperatively breeding bird
Bourne, A. (Contributor), Cunningham, S. (Creator), Spottiswoode, C. (Creator) & Ridley, A. (Contributor), DRYAD, 7 Aug 2020
DOI: 10.5061/dryad.7pvmcvdqf, http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.7pvmcvdqf and 2 more links, https://zenodo.org/record/3975793, https://zenodo.org/records/3975793 (show fewer)
Dataset
Projects
- 1 Finished
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Group Dynamics, Allee Effects and Population Regulation in Cooperative Breeders
Ridley, M. (Investigator 01)
ARC Australian Research Council
1/01/11 → 31/07/18
Project: Research
Research output
- 49 Citations
- 1 Article
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Compensatory Breeding in Years Following Drought in a Desert-Dwelling Cooperative Breeder
Bourne, A. R., Cunningham, S. J., Spottiswoode, C. N. & Ridley, A. R., 30 Jun 2020, In: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 8, 190.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access26 Citations (Scopus)