Nest traits for the world's birds

Funding: H2020 European Research Council, Grant/Award Number: 788203; John Templeton Foundation, Grant/Award Number: 60501.Motivation: A well-constructed nest is a key element of successful reproduction in most species of birds, and nest morphology varies widely across the class. Macroecological and macroevolutionary studies tend to group nest design into a small number of discrete categories, often based on taxonomic inference. In reality, however, many species display considerable intraspecific variation in their nest-building behaviour, and broad-level categories may include several functionally distinct nest types. To address this imprecision in the literature and facilitate future studies of broad-scale variation in avian parental care, we here introduce a detailed, global comparative database of nest building in birds, together with preliminary correlations between these traits and species-level environmental variables. Main types of variables contained: We present species-level data for nest structure, location, height, material composition, sex of builder, building time and nest dimensions. Spatial location and grain: Global. Maps are presented at the 10 × 10 level. Time period and grain: Included species are generally extant, although we present some data for recently extinct taxa. The data were collected in 2017–2021 and was drawn from secondary sources published in 1992–2021. Major taxa and level of measurement: Partial or complete trait data is presented for 8601 species of birds, representing 36 of 36 orders and 239 of 243 families. Software format: Data have been uploaded as Supplementary Material in .csv format and are separated by species and source for all traits (Dataset S1, and Metadata) as well as summarized at the species level for the major structure and location variables (Dataset S2, and Metadata).Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Nest traits for the world's birds

We thank Mike Hansell, Mike Benton and members of the Healy and Lala labs, especially Sophie Edwards and Helen Spence-Jones, for comments on project design. This work was funded by the John Templeton Foundation (#60501 to KNL) and the European Research Council (788203 ‘Innovation’).Peer reviewe

The evolution of parental care and associated life-history traits in teleost fishes and passerine birds : comparative and experimental approaches

Parental care is any form of provisioning that improves offspring survival and can range from brief guarding of young to advanced adaptations such as viviparity. Despite the wide taxonomic spread of care, the evolution of such diversity and its impact on other aspects of species’ life history are not well understood and quantified. Using phylogenetic comparative methods and experimental approaches, I explore how variation in care provision, together with environmental context, affect a range of life-history traits in teleost fishes and passerines. In contrast to birds where advanced and prolonged care dominates, parental care in fishes encompasses a broad spectrum of strategies with varying levels of investment. Chapter 1 provides an overview of research into the evolution of parental care. In Chapter 2, I assess the relative effect of environment and care strategies on variation in offspring size across 1,639 species of marine teleosts. While investment in eggs is driven primarily by temperature, I find that species with parental care exhibit larger sizes at hatching compared to species with no care. I also show that large hatchlings promote the evolution of advanced forms of care but there is no evidence that post-spawning care in general, including simpler forms of care provided predominantly by males, co-evolves with offspring size. In Chapter 3, I use an experimental approach to investigate the potential trade-off between the provision of a safe environment for offspring development and attracting a mate in three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) males that construct nests. I find that stickleback males build more conspicuous nests on backgrounds that are perceived as safer, but that their investment in nests is balanced against other courtship activities. In Chapter 4, I identify global correlates of variation in nest size using measurements from 1,117 species of cup-nesting passerines. I observe that the pattern of building larger nests in colder environments or habitats with reduced predation threat – first detected at population-level studies – does scale up globally and across a multitude of species. Finally, in Chapter 5, I evaluate the importance of predation and competition in shaping the evolution of nest type and associated life-history traits in passerines. Using data from 4,105 species, I determine that enclosed nests are associated with larger clutch sizes and longer periods of care irrespective of the level of competition in the breeding environment."This work was supported by the John Templeton Foundation [grant number #60501], the Carnegie Trust [grant number #RIG008238], Systematics Research Fund [Award 2019] and the Fisheries Society of the British Isles [Small Research Grant 2019]." -- Fundin

Morphometric measurements throughout ontogeny in Globorotalia plesiotumida-tumida lineage of planktic foraminifera

Plasticity in developmental trajectories has been proposed to contribute to species divergence but finding evidence for plasticity-led evolution in the fossil record remains challenging. Here we use high-resolution imaging techniques to map developmental change in Globorotalia plesiotumida–tumida lineage of planktic foraminifera from late Miocene until Recent. The unique mode of foraminiferal growth by the addition of chambers onto a calcite shell means that adult fossils retain information about their developmental history. All study specimens were obtained from the ODP in Western Caribbean, Leg 165, Sites 1000 and 999. We first assessed change in cumulative chamber volume and surface area at each chamber addition during the transition between the ancestral G. plesiotumida and its descendant G. tumida from 6.3 Ma to 5.3 Ma using five specimens reconstructed from Synchrotron X-Ray microtomography scans. This was complemented with measurements from 63 specimens reconstructed using X-Ray microtomography from five populations at 7.3 Ma, 6.3 Ma, 5.6 Ma, 5.3 Ma and 0.25 Ma. In addition, we characterised the external morphology of all study specimens by measuring their total length and coiling direction (n = 78). Our dataset shows that the transition interval in this lineage is characterised by an increase in variability in cumulative chamber volume compared to samples outside of this range. We also find that the transition is marked by a distinct shift in developmental trajectory and coiling direction in support of a rapid lineage division rather than gradual change. The large variation in developmental trajectories that we uncover emphasises the need for high-throughput approaches in studies of developmental change in the fossil record

Data for: The evolution of enclosed nesting in passerines is shaped by competition, energetic costs and predation threat

Many bird species breed in enclosed nests which may provide better protection against predation and climatic conditions compared to open nests and are generally associated with larger clutch sizes and slower offspring growth. Here we show that different enclosed nesting strategies are each linked to behaviors with very different costs and benefits on a macroevolutionary scale. Using a detailed dataset of nest structure and location from the order Passeriformes we employed phylogenetic comparative methods to evaluate (1) how predation, competition, design complexity and energetic costs have shaped evolutionary transitions between different nesting strategies and (2) whether these strategies also have distinct relationships with life-history traits. We find that flexible strategies (i.e., nesting in both open and enclosed sites) as well as energetically demanding strategies are evolutionarily unstable, indicating the presence of underlying ecological trade-offs between anti-predator protections, construction costs and competition. We confirm that species with enclosed nests have larger clutch sizes and longer development and nestling periods compared to open nesters, but only species that construct enclosed nests rather than compete for pre-existing cavities spend more time incubating and are concentrated in the tropics. Flexible strategies prevail in seasonal environments and are linked to larger clutches – but not longer development – compared to nesting in the open. Overall, our results suggest that predation, competition and energetic costs affect the evolution of nesting strategies, but via distinct pathways, and that caution is warranted when generalizing about the functions of enclosed nest designs in birds.Funding provided by: John Templeton FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000925Award Number: 60501Funding provided by: European Research CouncilCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000781Award Number: 788203Funding provided by: Uniwersytet WarszawskiCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100006445Award Number:The dataset was collected from literature sources

Trapped in time

Analysis of specimens preserved in amber from the Cretaceous period suggests that nematodes changed their host preference towards insects with a complete metamorphosis more recently

Data from Vanadzina & Schmidt 2021 ‘Developmental change during a speciation event – evidence from planktic foraminifera’

We use high-resolution imaging techniques to characterise change in ontogeny during a speciation event in Globorotalia plesiotumida-tumida lineage of planktic foraminifera. All samples sourced from ODP in Western Caribbean, Leg 165, Sites 1000 and 999. Data from Vanadzina & Schmidt 2021 ‘Developmental change during a speciation event – evidence from planktic foraminifera’ published in Paleobiology https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2021.2