Morland, F., Ewen, J.G., Santure, A.W. et al. (2 more authors) (2024) Demographic drivers of reproductive failure in a threatened bird: insights from a decade of data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 121 (36). e2319104121. ISSN 0027-8424
Abstract
Hatching failure affects up to 77% of eggs laid by threatened bird species, yet the true prevalence and drivers of egg fertilization failure versus embryo mortality as underlying mechanisms of hatching failure are unknown. Here, using ten years of data comprising 4,371 eggs laid by a population of a threatened bird, the hihi (Notiomystis cincta), we investigate the relative importance of infertility and embryo death as drivers of hatching failure and explore population-level factors associated with them. We show that of the 1,438 eggs that failed to hatch (33% of laid eggs) between 2010 and 2020, 83% failed due to embryo mortality, with the majority failing in the early stages of embryonic development. In the most comprehensive estimates of infertility rates in a wild bird population to date, we find that fertilization failure accounts for around 17% of hatching failure overall and is more prevalent in years where the population is smaller and more male biased. Male embryos are more likely to die during early development than females, but we find no overall effect of sex on the successful development of embryos. Offspring fathered by within-pair males have significantly higher inbreeding levels than extra-pair offspring; however, we find no effect of inbreeding nor extra-pair paternity on embryo mortality. Accurately distinguishing between infertility and embryo mortality in this study provides unique insight into the underlying causes of reproductive failure over a long-term scale and reveals the complex risks of small population sizes to the reproduction of threatened species.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. Except as otherwise noted, this author-accepted version of a journal article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) is made available via the University of Sheffield Research Publications and Copyright Policy under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ © 2024 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND). (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ROYAL SOCIETY RGF\R1\180101 Royal Society 13525 ROYAL SOCIETY DH160200 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 03 Sep 2024 15:52 |
Last Modified: | 03 Sep 2024 16:16 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | National Academy of Sciences |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1073/pnas.2319104121 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:216405 |