Noindicationforclutchsizerelateddailyenergy.PDFVIP

CHAPTER 7 No indication for clutch size related daily energy expenditure during incubation in female great tits: do parents compensate? Maaike E. de Heij, Richard Ubels, G. Henk Visser Joost M. Tinbergen Submitted to Journal of Experimental Biology ABSTRACT Recent studies show that selection on clutch size also acts during the incubation phase, which may be the result of changes in energy expenditure of the attending parents. To determine whether incubating birds increase their energy expenditure with clutch enlarge- ment, we manipulated clutch size (either enlarged or control) and measured daily energy expenditure (24 h) of free-living female great tits (Parus major L.) with doubly labelled water. These measures of energy expenditure were combined with measures on nest atten- dance of the females. Females incubating control clutches containing on average 9.1 ± 1.2 eggs spent 78.4 ± 9.0 kJ per 24 h, at an average ambient temperature of 13.3 ± 1.6 ºC. Daily energy expenditure was strongly related to mean ambient temperature over the 24-h measuring period. Daily energy expenditure of females incubating enlarged clutches was not significantly higher than that of females incubating control clutches. Although power was lacking to reveal any small difference in daily energy expenditure between females of the two treatment categories, we argue that females were most likely compensating for the additional energetic costs of incubating enlarged clutches. Yet, the mechanism by which these female compensate remains unclear, and needs to be the focus of future studies. INTRODUCTION Life-history theory predicts that parents produce the number of offspring that maximises their fitness (Stearns