Liu Jin, Chai Ziwen, Wang Hui, Ivanov Anton, Kubelka Vojtěch, Freckleton Robert, Zhang Zhengwang, Székely Tamás
Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
iScience. 2023 May 19;26(6):106928. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106928. eCollection 2023 Jun 16.
Arctic environments are changing rapidly and if we are to understand the resilience of species to future changes, we need to investigate alterations in their life histories. Egg size and egg shape are key life-history traits, reflecting parental investment as well as influencing future reproductive success. Here we focus on egg characteristics in two Arctic shorebirds, the Dunlin () and the Temminck's stint (). Using egg photos that encompass their full breeding ranges, we show that egg characteristics exhibit significant longitudinal variations, and the variation in the monogamous species (Dunlin) is significantly greater than the polygamous species (Temminck's stint). Our finding is consistent with the recent "disperse-to-mate" hypothesis which asserts that polygamous species disperse further to find mates than monogamous species, and by doing so they create panmictic populations. Taken together, Arctic shorebirds offer excellent opportunities to understand evolutionary patterns in life history traits.
北极环境正在迅速变化，如果我们想要了解物种对未来变化的适应能力，就需要研究它们生活史的改变。卵的大小和形状是关键的生活史特征，既反映了亲代投资，也会影响未来的繁殖成功率。在此，我们聚焦于两种北极滨鸟——黑腹滨鹬（）和红颈滨鹬（）的卵的特征。通过涵盖其整个繁殖范围的卵的照片，我们发现卵的特征呈现出显著的纵向变化，并且单配制物种（黑腹滨鹬）的变化显著大于多配制物种（红颈滨鹬）。我们的发现与最近的“分散择偶”假说一致，该假说认为多配制物种为了寻找配偶比单配制物种扩散得更远，这样它们就形成了随机交配的种群。总之，北极滨鸟为理解生活史特征的进化模式提供了绝佳机会。
