Find research datasets worth reusing

Search datasets from major research repositories and use ShareScore to quickly assess how well each record supports discovery, access, and reuse.

101

datasets available to search

ShareScore release 0.7.1

Dataset results

101 results for “Reproduction: investment”

Learn how ShareScore rates datasets ↗

dryad28/100

Data from: Effects of climate on reproductive investment in a masting species: assessment of climatic predictors and underlying mechanisms

1. Mechanisms by which climatic factors drive reproductive investment and phenology in masting species are not completely understood. Climatic conditions may act as a proximate cue, stimulating the onset of reproduction and indirectly increasing fitness through benefits associated with synchronous reproduction among individuals. Alternatively, climatic conditions may directly influence individual level allocation to reproduction and reproductive success through effects occurring independently of synchronous reproduction. We previously showed that masting in a ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) population was strongly influenced by spring mean temperature two years before seed cone maturation (Ti-2). However, recent work shows that the difference in temperature between previous growing seasons (ΔT) is more predictive of reproductive investment in long-lived tree species. 2. Here we compared four candidate models that predict seed cone production in P. ponderosa based upon different climatic factors (including Ti-2 and ΔT models). After determining the best climatic predictor, we tested for a potential mechanism by which climate might directly influence seed cone production independent of benefits via synchrony, namely effects of temperature on trade-offs between current and past reproduction (determined by underlying resource availability). 3. We found that Ti-2 (rather than ΔT) was the best predictor of seed cone production. We further show that this same climatic factor exerts a direct fitness benefit to individuals by reducing the strength of trade-offs between current and past reproductive efforts. 4. Synthesis: We demonstrate that a single climatic factor provides fitness benefits to individuals directly, by weakening reproductive trade-offs, and indirectly through the benefits associated with synchrony and masting. This suggests a mechanism for the origin and maintenance of masting: individuals initially respond to climatic cues that directly enhance reproduction (e.g. lower reproductive costs through weakened trade-offs) and this dynamic, expressed across multiple individuals, reinforces these benefits through the economies of scale associated with synchrony and masting.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

dryad28/100

Data from: The impact of reproductive investment and early-life environmental conditions on senescence: support for the disposable soma hypothesis

Several hypotheses have been put forward to explain the evolution of senescence. One of the leading hypotheses, the disposable soma hypothesis, predicts a trade-off, whereby early-life investment in reproduction leads to late-life declines in survival (survival senescence). Testing this hypothesis in natural populations is challenging, but important for understanding the evolution of senescence. We used the long-term data set from a contained, predator-free population of individually marked Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis) to investigate how age-related declines in survival are affected by early-life investment in reproduction and early-life environmental conditions. The disposable soma hypothesis predicts that higher investment in reproduction, or experiencing harsh conditions during early life, will lead to an earlier onset, and an increased rate, of senescence. We found that both sexes showed similar age-related declines in late-life survival consistent with senescence. Individuals that started breeding at a later age showed a delay in survival senescence, but this later onset of breeding did not result in a less rapid decline in late-life survival. Although survival senescence was not directly related to early-life environmental conditions, age of first breeding increased with natal food availability. Therefore, early-life food availability may affect senescence by influencing age of first breeding. The disposable soma hypothesis of senescence is supported by delayed senescence in individuals that started breeding at a later age and therefore invested less in reproduction.

opencc-zeroDec 2012View details →

dryad28/100

Enforced monoandry and female investment into reproduction

<p>While uncovering the costs and benefits of polyandry has attracted considerable attention, assessing the net effect of sexual selection on population fitness requires the experimental manipulation of female mating over generations, which is usually only achievable in laboratory populations of arthropods. However, knowing if sexual selection improves or impairs the expression of life history traits is key for the management of captive populations of endangered species, which are mostly long-lived birds and mammals. It might therefore be questionable to extrapolate the results gathered on laboratory populations of insects to infer the net effect of sexual selection on populations of endangered species. Here, we used a longitudinal dataset that has been collected on a long-lived bird, the houbara bustard, kept in a conservation breeding program, to investigate the effect of enforced monoandry on female investment into reproduction. In captivity, female houbara bustards are artificially inseminated with sperm collected from a single male (enforced monoandry), or sequentially inseminated with semen of different males (polyandry), allowing post-copulatory sexual selection to operate. We identified female lines that were produced either by monoandrous or polyandrous inseminations over three generations, and we compared reproductive investment of females from the two mating system groups. We found that females in the polyandrous lines had higher investment into reproduction as they laid more eggs per season and produced heavier hatchlings. Higher reproductive investment into reproduction in the polyandrous lines did not result from inherited differences from females initially included in the two mating system groups. These results show that removal of sexual selection can alter reproductive investment after only few generations, potentially hindering population fitness and the success of conservation breeding programs.</p>

opencc-zeroOct 2021View details →

dryad28/100