BUSCADOR RECOLECTA

Peer reviewed

Dataset of the scientific article "Carotenoid-based coloration predicts both longevity and lifetime fecundity in male birds, but testosterone disrupts signal reliability"., Financial support was obtained from the projects PII1I09-0271-5037, PII1C09-0128-4724, SBPLY/17/180501/000468 from the JCCM (co-financed with European Regional Development Fund –ERDF) and CGL2009-10883-C02-02 and CGL2015-69338-C2-2-P from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICIN, Spain). AC and LP-R were supported by a “Juan de la Cierva-formación” postdoctoral grant from Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO, FJCI-2015-23536) and a SECTI postdoctoral contract from the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), respectively., Peer reviewed

Female birds can influence offspring development by adjusting egg size or by a differential allocation of egg resources. Such maternal effects can be expected to be shaped by natural selection, given the costs connected to the allocation of maternal resources. Among egg components, yolk androgens play an important role in affecting offspring life-history traits. Despite their relevance for nestling development, factors accounting for the observed within- and between-clutch variation are still poorly known. By using a cross-sectional sampling approach, we tested the effect of female age, laying order and laying date on the deposition of yolk androstenedione (A4) and testosterone (T), since young and older females could maximize their fitness differently according to breeding conditions. We found a remarkable lack of differences in overall yolk androgen levels across different ages. However, comparing first-year with older females, our results showed that age did not influence yolk T levels at the beginning of the breeding season, whereas at the end first-year females transferred lower hormone levels than older females. Within clutches, both androgens increased across the laying sequence, suggesting that late nestlings benefit from an increased allocation that could compensate hatching asynchrony. However, when considering A4 we found that, whereas older females always increased A4 levels across the laying sequence, first-year females did not increase it at the end of the breeding season, thus increasing the likelihood of brood reduction when environmental conditions became hardest. These findings suggest that yolk A4 variation may be particularly important at the within-clutch scale, by providing females with a tool to modify nestling hierarchies., The project was funded by projects CGL2011-26318 to DG (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad) and PGC2018-099596-B-I00 to LP-R (Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund -ERDF). JM was supported by a postdoctoral contract from the University of Extremadura (Junta de Extremadura - IB16121) and a postdoctoral grant from the Juan de la Cierva Subprogram (FJCI-2017-34109), with the financial sponsorship of the MICINN. LP-R was supported by a postdoctoral contract for accessing the Spanish System of Science, Technology and Innovation (SECTI) from the University of Castilla-La Mancha., Peer reviewed