Older mothers produce more successful daughters

Acknowledgements Marmots were studied under UCLA research protocol ARC 2001-191-01 (approved by the UCLA Animal Care Committee on 13 May 2002 and renewed annually). Permits were issued by the Colorado Division of Wildlife. We are thankful to all marmoteers who contributed to data collection. S.B.K. was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council, J.G.A.M. by a Marie-Curie Fellowship, and D.T.B by the National Geographic Society, UCLA (Faculty Senate and the Division of Life Sciences), a Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory research fellowship, and the NSF (IDBR-0754247, DEB1119660 and DEB-1557130 to D.T.B., and DBI 0242960, DBI-0731346 and REU1226713 to the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory).Peer reviewedPostprin

Cumulative reproductive costs on current reproduction in a wild polytocous mammal

Funding Information Marie‐Curie Fellowship UCLA Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory Research Fellowship NSF. Grant Numbers: IDBR‐0754247, DEB‐1119660, DBI 0242960, DBI 0731346 Natural Environment Research Council. Grant Number: NE/L50175X/1 National Geographic SocietyPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Impacts of roads on bird species richness: A meta-analysis considering road types, habitats and feeding guilds

Roadsides can harbour remarkable biodiversity; thus, they are increasingly considered as habitats with potential for conservation value. To improve construction and management of roadside habitats with positive effects on biodiversity, we require a quantitative understanding of important influential factors that drive both positive and negative effects of roads. We conducted meta-analyses to assess road effects on bird communities. We specifically tested how the relationship between roads and bird richness varies when considering road type, habitat characteristics and feeding guild association. Overall, bird richness was similar in road habitats compared to non-road habitats, however, the two apparently differ in species composition. Bird richness was lowered by road presence in areas with denser tree cover but did not differ according to road type. Richness differences between habitats with and without roads further depended on primary diet of species, and richness of omnivores was positively affected by road presence. We conclude that impacts of roads on bird richness are highly context-dependent, and planners should carefully evaluate road habitats on a case by case basis. This emphasizes the need for further studies that explicitly test for differences in species composition and abundance, to disentangle contexts where a road will negatively affect bird communities, and where it will not

How social behaviour and life-history traits change with age and in the year prior to death in female yellow-bellied marmots

Studies in natural populations are essential to understand the evolutionary ecology of senescence and terminal allocation. While there are an increasing number of studies investigating late-life variation in different life-history traits of wild populations, little is known about these patterns in social behaviour. We used long-term individual based data on yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer) to quantify how affiliative social behaviours and different life-history traits vary with age and in the last year of life, and how patterns compare between the two. We found that some social behaviours and all life-history traits varied with age, whereas terminal last year of life effects were only observed in life-history traits. Our results imply that affiliative social behaviours do not act as a mechanism to adjust allocation among traits when close to death, and highlight the importance of adopting an integrative approach, studying late-life variation and senescence across multiple different traits, to allow the identification of potential trade-offs. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ageing and sociality: why, when and how does sociality change ageing patterns?

Data from: Cumulative reproductive costs on current reproduction in a wild polytocous mammal

The cumulative cost of reproduction hypothesis predicts that reproductive costs accumulate over an individual’s reproductive lifespan. While short-term costs have been extensively explored, the prevalence of cumulative long-term costs and the circumstances under which such costs occur alongside or instead of short-term costs, are far from clear. Indeed, few studies have simultaneously tested for both short-term and cumulative long-term reproductive costs in natural populations. Even in mammals, comparatively little is known about cumulative effects of previous reproduction, especially in species with high variation in offspring numbers, where costs could vary among successful reproductive events. Here, we quantify effects of previous short-term and cumulative long-term reproduction on current reproduction probability and litter size in wild female yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer), and test how these effects vary with age and between two contrasting environments. We provide evidence for cumulative long-term effects: females that had both reproduced frequently and weaned large litters on average in previous years had decreased current reproduction probability. We found no evidence for short-term reproductive costs between reproductive bouts. However, females weaned larger litters when they had weaned larger litters on average in previous years, and had lower current reproduction probability when their previous reproductive success was low. Together these results suggest that, alongside persistent among-individual variation, long-term reproductive history affects current reproductive success

Data from: Age, state, environment and season dependence of senescence in body mass

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