Sex allocation in a monomorphic seabird with a single-egg clutch : test of the environment, mate quality, and female condition hypotheses

BriAnne Addison, Alexander S. Kitaysky, J. Mark Hipfner

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    25 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Sex allocation theory posits that mothers should preferentially invest in sons when environmental conditions are favorable for breeding, their mates are of high quality, or they are in good body condition. We tested these three hypotheses in rhinoceros auklets (Cerorhinca monocerata), monomorphic seabirds that lay a single-egg clutch, in 2 years that differed in environmental conditions for breeding. Results supported the environment and mate quality hypotheses, but these effects were interactive: offspring sex was independent of paternal traits in the poor year for breeding, while females mated to larger and more ornamented males reared more sons in the better year. Conversely, offspring sex was unrelated to female condition, as indexed by hatching date. We propose that good rearing conditions enable females to rear sons possessing the desirable phenotypic attributes of their mates. Results also supported two critical assumptions of sex allocation theory: (1) dimorphism in offspring condition at independence: daughters fledged with higher baseline levels of corticosterone than sons and (2) differential costs of rearing sons versus daughters: mothers rearing sons when environmental conditions were poor completed parental care in poorer condition than mothers rearing daughters in the same year and mothers rearing either sex when conditions were better. These novel results may help to explain the disparate results of previous studies of avian sex allocation.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)135-141
    Number of pages7
    JournalBehavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
    Volume63
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2008

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