@article{EccardReilFolkertsmaetal.2018, author = {Eccard, Jana and Reil, Daniela and Folkertsma, Remco and Schirmer, Annika}, title = {The scent of infanticide risk?}, series = {Behavioral ecology and sociobiology}, volume = {72}, journal = {Behavioral ecology and sociobiology}, number = {175}, publisher = {Springer Nature Switzerland AG}, address = {New York}, issn = {0340-5443}, doi = {10.1007/s00265-018-2585-4}, pages = {11}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The killing of young by unrelated males is widespread in the animal kingdom. In short-lived small rodents, females can mate immediately after delivery (post-partum oestrus) and invest in future reproduction, but infanticide may put the nestlings, their current reproductive investment, at risk. Here, we investigated the behavioural trade-offs between mating interest and nest protection in an arena experiment with bank voles (Myodes glareolus). Non-gravid females (n=33) were housed at one end of a large structured arena with their nestlings. Different scents (cage bedding) were presented to each female in a replicated design. Three combinations of mating opportunities and male-female familiarity were simulated using different scent donors: mating opportunity with the sire of the nestlings with whom the female was familiar; mating opportunity with a male unrelated to the offspring and unfamiliar to the female, thus posing a higher risk to the offspring; and neither risk nor mating opportunity (clean control). Most females investigated male scents, regardless of familiarity, leaving their litter unprotected. During control treatment, females with larger litters spent less time at the scent area, indicating increasing nursing demands or better protection. Females with older litters visited scents more often, suggesting an increased interest in reproduction while they are non-gravid alongside the decreased risk of infanticide for older young. In the presence of unfamiliar scents, females spent more time protecting their nests, supporting the perceived association of unfamiliarity with infanticide risk. Thus, rodent females flexibly allocate time spent between searching for a mate and protecting their nest, which is modulated by their familiarity with a potential intruder.Significance statementInfanticide by conspecific males is an extreme form of sexual conflict and has large costs on females, abolishing their investment into current offspring. In an experimental approach, we exposed lactating female bank voles to different combinations of mating opportunity and familiarity to a (simulated) intruder: (1) the sire of the nestlings with whom the female was familiar and, therefore, potentially less risky in terms of infanticide; (2) a male which was unrelated and unfamiliar to the female and thus posed a higher risk to the offspring; or (3) as a control, cage bedding, which posed neither risk of infanticide nor a mating opportunity. We show that females flexibly allocated pup protection and mating interest based on their familiarity with the male, indicating that the unfamiliar males pose a threat to offspring, which is perceived by the females. Females further adjusted their behaviour to the size and/or age of their current litter, investing more time in male scents when offspring were older, thus balancing future and current investments into reproduction.}, language = {en} } @article{FolkertsmaWestburyEccardetal.2018, author = {Folkertsma, Remco and Westbury, Michael V. and Eccard, Jana and Hofreiter, Michael}, title = {The complete mitochondrial genome of the common vole, Microtus arvalis (Rodentia: Arvicolinae)}, series = {Mitochondrial DNA Part B}, volume = {3}, journal = {Mitochondrial DNA Part B}, number = {1}, issn = {2380-2359}, doi = {10.1080/23802359.2018.1457994}, pages = {446 -- 447}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The common vole, Microtus arvalis belongs to the genus Microtus in the subfamily Arvicolinae. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of M. arvalis was recovered using shotgun sequencing and an iterative mapping approach using three related species. Phylogenetic analyses using the sequence of 21 arvicoline species place the common vole as a sister species to the East European vole (Microtus levis), but as opposed to previous results we find no support for the recognition of the genus Neodon within the subfamily Arvicolinae, as this is, as well as the genus Lasiopodomys, found within the Microtus genus.}, language = {en} } @article{BreedveldFolkertsmaEccard2019, author = {Breedveld, Merel Cathelijne and Folkertsma, Remco and Eccard, Jana}, title = {Rodent mothers increase vigilance behaviour when facing infanticide risk}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {9}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, publisher = {Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature}, address = {London}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-019-48459-9}, pages = {10}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Infanticide, the killing of unrelated young, is widespread and frequently driven by sexual conflict. especially in mammals with exclusive maternal care, infanticide by males is common and females suffer fitness costs. Recognizing infanticide risk and adjusting offspring protection accordingly should therefore be adaptive in female mammals. Using a small mammal (Myodes glareolus) in outdoor enclosures, we investigated whether lactating mothers adjust offspring protection, and potential mate search behaviour, in response to different infanticide risk levels. We presented the scent of the litter's sire or of a stranger male near the female's nest, and observed female nest presence and movement by radiotracking. While both scents simulated a mating opportunity, they represented lower (sire) and higher (stranger) infanticide risk. compared to the sire treatment, females in the stranger treatment left their nest more often, showed increased activity and stayed closer to the nest, suggesting offspring protection from outside the nest through elevated alertness and vigilance. females with larger litters spent more time investigating scents and used more space in the sire but not in the stranger treatment. Thus, current investment size affected odour inspection and resource acquisition under higher risk. Adjusting nest protection and resource acquisition to infanticide risk could allow mothers to elicit appropriate (fitness-saving) counterstrategies, and thus, may be widespread.}, language = {en} } @article{RomeroMujalliRochowKahletal.2021, author = {Romero-Mujalli, Daniel and Rochow, Markus and Kahl, Sandra M. and Paraskevopoulou, Sofia and Folkertsma, Remco and Jeltsch, Florian and Tiedemann, Ralph}, title = {Adaptive and nonadaptive plasticity in changing environments: Implications for sexual species with different life history strategies}, series = {Ecology and Evolution}, volume = {11}, journal = {Ecology and Evolution}, number = {11}, publisher = {John Wiley \& Sons, Inc.}, address = {New Jersey}, issn = {2045-7758}, pages = {17}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Populations adapt to novel environmental conditions by genetic changes or phenotypic plasticity. Plastic responses are generally faster and can buffer fitness losses under variable conditions. Plasticity is typically modeled as random noise and linear reaction norms that assume simple one-to- one genotype-phenotype maps and no limits to the phenotypic response. Most studies on plasticity have focused on its effect on population viability. However, it is not clear, whether the advantage of plasticity depends solely on environmental fluctuations or also on the genetic and demographic properties (life histories) of populations. Here we present an individual-based model and study the relative importance of adaptive and nonadaptive plasticity for populations of sexual species with different life histories experiencing directional stochastic climate change. Environmental fluctuations were simulated using differentially autocorrelated climatic stochasticity or noise color, and scenarios of directiona climate change. Nonadaptive plasticity was simulated as a random environmental effect on trait development, while adaptive plasticity as a linear, saturating, or sinusoidal reaction norm. The last two imposed limits to the plastic response and emphasized flexible interactions of the genotype with the environment. Interestingly, this assumption led to (a) smaller phenotypic than genotypic variance in the population (many-to- one genotype-phenotype map) and the coexistence of polymorphisms, and (b) the maintenance of higher genetic variation—compared to linear reaction norms and genetic determinism—even when the population was exposed to a constant environment for several generations. Limits to plasticity led to genetic accommodation, when costs were negligible, and to the appearance of cryptic variation when limits were exceeded. We found that adaptive plasticity promoted population persistence under red environmental noise and was particularly important for life histories with low fecundity. Populations produing more offspring could cope with environmental fluctuations solely by genetic changes or random plasticity, unless environmental change was too fast.}, language = {en} }