Find research datasets worth reusing

opencc-zeroDec 2017View details →

Data from: Laying sequence interacts with incubation temperature to influence rate of embryonic development and hatching synchrony in a precocial bird

Incubation starts during egg laying for many bird species and causes developmental asynchrony within clutches. Faster development of late-laid eggs can help reduce developmental differences and synchronize hatching, which is important for precocial species whose young must leave the nest soon after hatching. In this study, we examined the effect of egg laying sequence on length of the incubation period in Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa). Because incubation temperature strongly influences embryonic development rates, we tested the interactive effects of laying sequence and incubation temperature on the ability of late-laid eggs to accelerate development and synchronize hatching. We also examined the potential cost of faster development on duckling body condition. Fresh eggs were collected and incubated at three biologically relevant temperatures (Low: 34.9°C, Medium: 35.8°C, and High: 37.6°C), and egg laying sequences from 1 to 12 were used. Length of the incubation period declined linearly as laying sequence advanced, but the relationship was strongest at medium temperatures followed by low temperatures and high temperatures. There was little support for including fresh egg mass in models of incubation period. Estimated differences in length of the incubation period between eggs 1 and 12 were 2.7 d, 1.2 d, and 0.7 d at medium, low and high temperatures, respectively. Only at intermediate incubation temperatures did development rates of late-laid eggs increase sufficiently to completely compensate for natural levels of developmental asynchrony that have been reported in Wood Duck clutches at the start of full incubation. Body condition of ducklings was strongly affected by fresh egg mass and incubation temperature but declined only slightly as laying sequence progressed. Our findings show that laying sequence and incubation temperature play important roles in helping to shape embryo development and hatching synchrony in a precocial bird.

opencc-zeroJan 2024View details →

The effect of ambient temperature on bird embryonic development: A comparison between uniparental incubating silver-throated tits and biparental incubating black-throated tits

The temperature experienced by avian embryos during development has important impacts on their growth and post-hatching phenotypes. Ambient temperature can directly affect avian nest temperature and indirectly affect it through its impact on parental incubation behaviours. Because the nests of uniparental incubators are usually left unattended more frequently than the nests of biparental incubators whose nests can be attended by another bird when one bird leaves the nest, we predict that the effect of ambient temperature on nest temperature and thus on embryonic development (specifically, incubation period length and hatching success) and post-hatching phenotype (i.e. potential carry-over effect on nestling body mass and condition) should be greater in uniparental incubators than in biparental incubators. To test this prediction, we studied two congeneric species, the biparental incubating black-throated tits (Aegithalos concinnus) and the uniparental incubating silver-throated tits (A. glaucogularis). We found that although the two species' embryos both developed faster (shorter incubation period length) when ambient temperature was higher, the slope was significantly greater for silver-throated tits than for black-throated tits, consistent with our prediction of a greater effect of ambient temperature on embryonic development in silver-throated tits. However, the result was not due to a greater effect of ambient temperature on nest temperature because nest temperatures of the two species had positive relationships with ambient temperature in a similar way. Therefore, it implies a greater response of silver-throated tit embryos to temperature change. In addition, ambient temperature during the incubation stage did not affect either hatching success or nestling body mass and condition in both species. Although our predictions were not fully supported, our findings highlight the different responses of embryonic development to environmental changes between a uniparental incubator and a biparental incubator and suggest further research to explore the mechanisms.

opencc-zeroJan 2024View details →

Data from: incubation as a driver of maternal effects: temperature influences levels of yolk maternally derived 5α-dihydrotestosterone

In birds, maternal hormones deposited into eggs in response to environmental stimuli can impact offspring phenotype. Although less studied, environmental conditions can also influence females' incubation behavior, which might play a role in regulating embryo exposure to maternal hormones through changes in incubation temperature that affect the activity of the enzymes responsible for converting testosterone (T) to 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) or estradiol. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the initial T content of the yolk and incubation temperature determine exposure to T metabolites during early embryo development. In the Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica), we experimentally manipulated yolk T and incubation temperature (38° C versus 36° C) and analyzed DHT and estradiol titers on day four of incubation. We found that eggs with experimentally increased T and those incubated at 36° C showed higher DHT concentration in egg yolk (with no synergistic effect of the two treatments). Estradiol titers were not affected by T manipulation or incubation temperature. Our study suggests that incubation temperature influences DHT titers and may act as an understudied source of maternal influence on offspring phenotype.

opencc-zeroJan 2024View details →

Extended incubation recesses in Sanderlings are impacted by temperature and body condition

Complex incubation strategies have evolved to solve the trade-off between parent survival and care for their eggs with often brief departures (recesses) that maximise egg survival or infrequent extended recesses maximising adult condition. Here we examined incubation behaviour of Sanderlings (Calidris alba), a species that exhibits both bi- and uniparental incubation behaviour. During 11 breeding seasons in Greenland, we have quantified incubation variability with thermologgers placed in nests. We estimated the impact of environmental conditions and individual characteristics on the occurrence and the duration of recesses. We found that extended recesses are a unique feature of uniparentals, and their frequency and duration increased in colder temperatures. The relationship was mediated by body condition, with individuals in poor condition performing longer extended recesses in colder temperatures. This suggests that extended recesses may represent a shift towards self-maintenance at the expense of the egg care, allowing birds to continue incubating under unfavourable conditions. Our study illustrates how extended recesses may be a key breeding strategy to overcome high energetical costs associated with incubation. Quantifying such behavioural flexibility paves the way for tracking future behavioural responses of individuals in the face of changing environments.

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2021View details →

The Reptilian Offspring Sex and Incubation Environment (ROSIE) Database

Updates described in README file

opencc-zeroApr 2024View details →

Data from: Delayed incubation leads to hatching failure of a Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) nest

Birds face strong selective pressures to complete individual nesting attempts as quickly as possible to minimize exposure of nests to predators and weather, maximize renesting potential, and maximize hatching success. As a result, the duration of developmental periods and overall nest periods are often relatively constant within species. However, birds may sometimes be subject to acute energetic constraints that may preclude them from initiating incubation at the optimal time. We report an extraordinary case of delayed incubation by a female Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) in Oregon, USA, which contrasted sharply with a large sample of nests monitored by motion-activated video cameras in western North America from 2015 to 2018. The focal female delayed incubation by 11 days following clutch completion and subsequently experienced near-total hatching failure of her clutch. This observation corroborates previous experimental studies regarding the limits to egg viability and trade-offs between the timing of incubation onset and hatching success. These findings illustrate the acute trade-offs faced by nesting birds, and the cost of delayed incubation that we observed in this owl could help explain the cause of asynchronous hatching.

opencc-by-4.0Mar 2022View details →

Anoxic Incubation and Priming Experiment in a Permafrost and Thermokarst Peatland in Lutose, Alberta, Canada

The dataset presents anaerobic SOC mineralization results through incubations (CO2 and CH4 production rates) from a permafrost peat plateau and two adjacent thermokarst bogs which thawed ~30 (Young Thermokarst bog) and ~200 (Mature Thermokarst bog) years ago. Peat was incubated from 15 depths of ⁓6 m cores at 4 and 15°C for 714 days, followed by a priming experiment to assess the potential role of labile plant inputs on SOC mineralization.

opencc-zeroMar 2022View details →

Incubation mound-building by the Australian megapode (Malleefowl, Leipoa ocellata) creates novel, resource-rich patches in a semi-arid woodland

Desert ecosystems are characterised by a patchy distribution of resources. Nutrient sinks associated with landscape modulators (trees) differ markedly from the resource-poor interpatch matrix. Fauna can also act as landscape modulators, modifying patch dynamics by redistributing resources via 'ecosystem engineering'. In semi-arid woodlands, malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata: Megapodiidae) reconfigure surface characteristics by scavenging leaf litter to construct large incubation mounds. The extent to which this movement of resources creates a novel patch and alters extant patches is largely unknown. Ecosystem engineering effects by megapodes have been little studied, but are potentially great, particularly in drylands, where mammalian engineers are known to enhance ecosystem function and drive restoration. We measured vegetation, ground cover, and soil chemistry at malleefowl mounds and four extant microsites (trees and open areas close to, and far from, mounds) and predicted that: 1) malleefowl mounds would represent enriched, yet novel, microsites; 2) the characteristics of tree and open patches close to the mounds would differ from those away from the mounds, because of the diminishing intensity of disturbance; and 3) effects at tree and open patches close to the mound would be shorter-term, compared to the more substantial high-resource patch formation occurring at the mound, but we expected all effects would diminish with time since malleefowl activity. We found that: 1) malleefowl mounds were novel microsites with soil chemistry more similar to tree-modulated patches, and groundcover and vegetation variables more similar to the open, interpatch matrix; 2) effects extended to tree and open patches near the mound, but most effects were short lived; and 3) some novel mound attributes (e.g., soil pH, phosphorus, nitrogen, carbon) were greater at mounds, irrespective of their age, while less plant cover and richness on young mounds dissipated with age. Synthesis: Mound-building megapodes can modulate the distribution of locally derived resources and create a novel microsite. Engineering effects can enhance spatial heterogeneity and ecosystem function over broad spatial and temporal scales, and may assist with ecological restoration, particularly in depauperate, arid systems.

opencc-zeroApr 2022View details →

Overlooked costs of coloniality: Mislaid eggs and the double Incubation of separate nests

The evolution of colonial breeding remains an outstanding question in evolutionary biology, in part due to our limited understanding of the costs and benefits of group living. We document 85 cases of Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica erythrogaster laying, and subsequently abandoning, eggs in empty, unclaimed nests located adjacent to active nests during a six-year study. The frequency of this behavior was positively correlated with total available nests, a metric that increases with colony size. In addition, two female swallows were observed alternately incubating multiple clutches after mislaying eggs in neighboring nests. We argue that the potential to mislay eggs and allocate parental care across separate nests may represent an overlooked cost of colonial nesting in birds.

opencc-zeroAug 2022View details →

Genome-wide DNA methylation patterns harbor signatures of hatchling sex and past incubation temperature in a species with environmental sex determination

Conservation of thermally sensitive species depends on monitoring organismal and population-level responses to environmental change in real time. Epigenetic processes are increasingly recognized as key integrators of environmental conditions into developmentally plastic responses, and attendant epigenomic datasets hold potential for revealing cryptic phenotypes relevant to conservation efforts. Here, we demonstrate the utility of genome-wide DNA methylation (DNAm) patterns in the face of climate change for a group of especially vulnerable species, those with temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD). Due to their reliance on thermal cues during development to determine sexual fate, contemporary shifts in temperature are predicted to skew offspring sex ratios and ultimately destabilize sensitive populations. Using reduced-representation bisulfite sequencing, we profiled the DNA methylome in blood cells of hatchling American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), a TSD species lacking reliable markers of sexual dimorphism in early life-stages. We identified 120 sex-associated differentially methylated cytosines (DMCs; FDR < 0.1) in hatchlings incubated under a range of temperatures, as well as 707 unique temperature-associated DMCs. We further developed DNAm-based models capable of predicting hatchling sex with 100% accuracy (in 20 training samples and 4 test samples) and past incubation temperature with a mean absolute error of 1.2˚C (in 4 test samples) based on the methylation status of 20 and 24 loci, respectively. Though largely independent of epigenomic patterning occurring in the embryonic gonad during TSD, DNAm patterns in blood cells may serve as non-lethal markers of hatchling sex and past incubation conditions in conservation applications. These findings also raise intriguing questions regarding tissue-specific epigenomic patterning in the context of developmental plasticity.

Figure 9 in Incubation parameters, offspring growth, and behavioral adaptations to heat stress of Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger) in a Neotropical inland colony (Aves, Charadriiformes, Laridae)

Figure 9. Plumage development of a Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) chick from Praia do Totelão, Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil. (A) Camouflaged down plumage (Day 3); (B) appearance of dorsal pinfeathers and primaries (Day 7); (C) dorsal pinfeathers opened (Day 11); (D) primaries opened (Day 15); (E) completely developed immature plumage (Day 21). Photos: CO. BRA/INAU.

Figure 8 in Incubation parameters, offspring growth, and behavioral adaptations to heat stress of Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger) in a Neotropical inland colony (Aves, Charadriiformes, Laridae)

Figure 8. Mensural data of the single Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) chick surveyed in August-September 2015 that reached the fledging phase at Praia do Totelão, Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil (n = 1; accuracy = ± 0.01 cm). (A) Development of bill length (BL), bill width (BW), and tarsus length (TS) as a function of age (days). (B) Development of total body length (TL) and wing length (WL) as a function of age (days).

Figure 5 in Incubation parameters, offspring growth, and behavioral adaptations to heat stress of Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger) in a Neotropical inland colony (Aves, Charadriiformes, Laridae)

Figure 5. Developmental stages of a Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) clutch (nest 4S) at Praia doTotelão, Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil, from July to September 2015, with three fertilized eggs revealed by thermal imaging (right); with maximum (Max), minimum (Min), and mean temperature (Ds) inside the nest (white outline). Stages: (A) Day 8, (B) Day 14, and (C) Day 18 (two days before hatching). Note the well-camouflaged eggs inside the nest depression exhibiting some variation in shell pattern (left), with narrow corrugations caused by adults' bills when relocating the eggs. Photos by CO. BRA/INAU.

Figure 4 in Incubation parameters, offspring growth, and behavioral adaptations to heat stress of Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger) in a Neotropical inland colony (Aves, Charadriiformes, Laridae)

Figure 4. Mean surface temperatures (Te) of 25 eggs (n = 7 nests) of the Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) at Praia do Totelão, Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil, during incubation from July to September 2015; not all eggs reached hatching. Confidence intervals are indicated by bars; the regression line (dotted) represents a significant increase between Day 1 and hatching (R² = 0.098, p <0.01, LME).

Figure 3 in Incubation parameters, offspring growth, and behavioral adaptations to heat stress of Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger) in a Neotropical inland colony (Aves, Charadriiformes, Laridae)

Figure 3. Thermal images of a Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) nest (12N, white rectangles) at Praia do Totelão, Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil, taken on the same day (6 September 2015) in the early (05:59 h, A) and late morning (11.45 h, B), showing the mean (Ds), minimum, and maximum nest temperature, surface ground temperature (crosses), and egg surface temperature (within rectangles). Scale on right: color scale associated with the respective temperatures. With a special optical filter water drops were visualized (Blue and red circles outside the nest and next to the three clutch contours) which were taken to the nest by both adults. Note in Fig. B the sand surface temperature of 53.7℃. Photos by CO.BRA/INAU.

Figure 2 in Incubation parameters, offspring growth, and behavioral adaptations to heat stress of Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger) in a Neotropical inland colony (Aves, Charadriiformes, Laridae)

Figure 2. Egg mass development in three surveyed Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) nests (n = 7 eggs, 84 measurements) until hatching at Praia do Totelão, Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil, throughout the incubation period in July- September 2015. Note that the number of eggs decreased to three toward the end of incubation due to predation. The regression line indicates a negative trend (R² = 0.043, p <0.05, LME) of egg mass over incubation time.

Fig. 3 in The First Experience In New Technologies Of Breeding And Semi-Natural Eggs Incubation Of Northern Emys Orbicularis In Glass-House Aquaculture In Latvia

Fig. 3. Dynamics of measured temperatures of shore and water in the experimental glass-house.

Fig. 2 in The First Experience In New Technologies Of Breeding And Semi-Natural Eggs Incubation Of Northern Emys Orbicularis In Glass-House Aquaculture In Latvia

Fig. 2. Emys-friendly design of the experimental glass-house basin in summer.

Fig. 5 in The First Experience In New Technologies Of Breeding And Semi-Natural Eggs Incubation Of Northern Emys Orbicularis In Glass-House Aquaculture In Latvia

Fig. 5. First breeding-sun-basking behaviour observed in the experiment.

Fig. 9 in The First Experience In New Technologies Of Breeding And Semi-Natural Eggs Incubation Of Northern Emys Orbicularis In Glass-House Aquaculture In Latvia

Fig. 9. Scatterplot matrix for each pair of variables: CL and BW, CL and CB, BW and CB.