Destacados
- ¡Abierta convocatoria para proyectos de investigación en la ICTS- Doñana!
- La Fundación Jaime González-Gordon ofrece cuatro becas para el desarrollo de Trabajos de Fin de Máster sobre Doñana
- Cinco contratos para desarrollar la tesis doctoral en la Estación Biológica de Doñana - CSIC
- Actividades de la Estación Biológica de Doñana en la Noche Europea de los Investigadores
- La ICTS-RBD se prepara para la 30ª Campaña de Anillamiento de Paseriformes Migratorios en Doñana
Noticias
Females mate with males with diminished pheomelanin-based coloration in the Eurasian nuthatch Sitta europaea
Sexual selection can drive the evolution of phenotypic traits because of female preferences for exaggerated trait expression in males. Sexual selection can also lead to the evolutionary loss of traits, a process to which female preferences for diminished male trait expression are hypothesized to contribute. However, empirical evidence of female preferences for diminished male traits is virtually lacking. Eurasian nuthatches Sitta europaea provide an opportunity to test this possibility, as a chestnut flank patch produced by the pigment pheomelanin is present since the first plumage of these birds and its color is more intense in nestlings in poor condition in our study population. It has been proposed that developing birds in poor condition may increase their production of pheomelanin as a detoxifying strategy. Female nuthatches may thus prefer mating with males showing flank feathers of diminished color, as this could indicate that males experienced good conditions early in development, which can positively affect the fitness of future generations. Here results according with this prediction in a wild population of Eurasian nuthatches are shown, as adult males with lighter chestnut feathers paired earlier in the season, while chestnut coloration had no effect on female mating success. Chestnut color expression was not affected by the body condition of birds, suggesting that females obtain information on the body condition in early life of their potential mates and not on their current body condition. This constitutes one of the few examples of females mating with males showing diminished traits and provides the only explanation so far by which this process can occur. informacion[at]ebd.csic.es: Galvan & Rodríguez-Martinez (2018) Females mate with males with diminished pheomelanin?based coloration in the Eurasian nuthatch Sitta europaea. J Avian Biol. Doi 10.1111/jav.01854
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jav.01854- Laboratorio de Ecología Molecular
- Laboratorio SIG y Teledetección (LAST)
- Laboratorio de Ecología Química
- Laboratorio de Ecología Acuática
- Laboratorio de Ecofisiología
- Laboratorio de Isótopos Estables
- Unidad de Experimentación Animal
- Visita virtual
- Unidad de Seguimiento
- Laboratorio de Camaras climaticas