Vergara Pablo, Martínez-Padilla Jesús, Redpath Stephen M, Mougeot Francois
School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, UK.
Naturwissenschaften. 2011 Oct;98(10):897-902. doi: 10.1007/s00114-011-0833-9. Epub 2011 Aug 20.
Environmental heterogeneity is expected to create variation in the ornament-condition relationship. This topic has been studied in males with less attention being given to females. Here, we explore inter-population variation in the relationship between the size of a male-like trait, supra-orbital combs, and body mass in female red grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus. We used the abundance of the nematode Trichostrongylus tenuis, a parasite with strong negative effects on this species, as a proxy of environmental conditions. We studied six populations over 5 years and showed that the comb size-body mass relationship varied with mean parasite abundance, with stronger ornament-condition relationships in populations with higher parasite infection levels. Our study supports the idea that environmental conditions, and in particular parasite infection levels, may affect the reliability of female ornaments as condition indicators.
环境异质性预计会导致饰型与身体状况关系的变化。这个话题在雄性中已有研究，但对雌性的关注较少。在此，我们探讨雌性红松鸡（Lagopus lagopus scoticus）中类似雄性特征——眶上栉的大小与体重之间关系的种群间差异。我们使用对该物种有强烈负面影响的寄生虫——细颈线虫（Trichostrongylus tenuis）的丰度作为环境条件的指标。我们在5年时间里研究了6个种群，结果表明栉大小与体重的关系随平均寄生虫丰度而变化，在寄生虫感染水平较高的种群中，饰型与身体状况的关系更强。我们的研究支持这样一种观点，即环境条件，特别是寄生虫感染水平，可能会影响雌性饰型作为身体状况指标的可靠性。
