Selective disappearance of individuals with high levels of glycated haemoglobin in a free-living bird

This work was supported by the ANR (ANR-06-JCJC0082 to B.D.), the CNRS (PEPS INEE and PICS France–Switzerland to B.D.), the French Ministe`re de l’Enseignement Supe´rieur et de la Recherche (PhD fellowship to C.R.), the Re´gion Rhoˆne-Alpes (Explora’doc mobility grant to C.R.), the University of Aberdeen (stipend to C.R.), the L’Ore´al Foundation-UNESCO ‘For Women in Science’ program (fellowship to C.R.) and the Rectors’ Conference of the Swiss Universities (grant to C.R. and P.B.).Peer reviewedPostprin

Antioxidant capacity is repeatable across years but does not consistently correlate with a marker of peroxidation in a free-living passerine bird

Many thanks to the landowners of Gotland for access to the study sites; to Lars Gustafsson for logistics on the field; to fifteen students and field assistants for their contribution to fieldwork; to François Criscuolo for his help designing the study and his comments on this manuscript; to Holger Schielzeth and Pierre de Villemereuil for their advice on adjusting repeatability and correlation estimates for measurement error and to Alan A. Cohen, David Costantini and anonymous reviewers for their comments on previous versions of this manuscript. This work was supported by the French National Center for Scientific Research (PICS France34 Switzerland to B.D.); the French Ministry of Research (PhD fellowship to C.R.); the University of Aberdeen (stipend to C.R.); the L’Oréal Foundation-UNESCO “For Women in Science” program (fellowship to C.R.); the Région Rhône-Alpes (Explora’doc mobility grant to C.R.); the Fédération de Recherche 41 BioEnvironnement et Santé (training grant to CR); the Rectors’ Conference of the Swiss Universities (joint doctoral program grant to C.R.) and the Fondation pour l'Université de Lausanne (exchange grant to C.R.); and the Journal of Experimental Biology (travel grant to CR).Peer reviewedPostprin

Eumelanin-based colouration reflects local survival of juvenile feral pigeons in an urban pigeon house

International audienceUrbanisation introduces deep changes in habitats, eventually creating new urban ecosystems where ecological functions are driven by human activities. The higher frequency of some phenotypes in urban vs rural/wild areas has led to the assumption that directional selection in urban habitats occurs, which may thereby favour some behavioural and physiological traits in urban animal populations compared to rural ones. However, empirical evidence of directional selection on phenotypic traits in urban areas remains scarce. In this study we tested whether eumelanin-based colouration could be linked to survival in two urban populations of the feral pigeon Columba livia. A number of studies in different cities pointed out a higher frequency of darker individuals in more urbanised areas compared to rural ones. To investigate whether directional selection through survival on this highly heritable trait could explain such patterns, we conducted mark-recapture studies on two populations of feral pigeons in highly urbanized areas. We predicted that darker coloured individuals would exhibit higher survival and/or philopatry (integrated into 'local survival') than paler coloured ones. No difference in local survival was found between adults of different colouration intensities. However, on one site, we found that darker juveniles had a higher local survival probability than light ones. Juvenile local survival on that site was also negatively correlated with the number of chicks born. This suggests the existence of colour- and/or density-dependent selection processes acting on juvenile feral pigeons in urban environments, acting through differential mortality and/or dispersal

Solving the conundrum of intra-specific variation in metabolic rate: A multidisciplinary conceptual and methodological toolkit

Researchers from diverse disciplines, including organismal and cellular physiology, sports science, human nutrition, evolution and ecology, have sought to understand the causes and consequences of the surprising variation in metabolic rate found among and within individual animals of the same species. Research in this area has been hampered by differences in approach, terminology and methodology, and the context in which measurements are made. Recent advances provide important opportunities to identify and address the key questions in the field. By bringing together researchers from different areas of biology and biomedicine, we describe and evaluate these developments and the insights they could yield, highlighting the need for more standardisation across disciplines. We conclude with a list of important questions that can now be addressed by developing a common conceptual and methodological toolkit for studies on metabolic variation in animals

Investigating potential causes of mortality at sea in Atlantic salmon through a simulation study

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Modelling the metabolic basis of life-history tradeoffs and its impacts on evolution

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Mechanistic modelling approaches to the metabolic basis of life-history tradeoffs

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Evaluation of different energy budget models for precocious maturation in Atlantic salmon

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Metabolic basis of life-history tradeoffs: empirical and modelling approaches

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Doing poorly or doing differently? An evolutionary view on individual quality

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