The ecology of ageing in wild societies: linking age structure and social behaviour.

The age of individuals has consequences not only for their fitness and behaviour but also for the functioning of the groups they form. Because social behaviour often changes with age, population age structure is expected to shape the social organization, the social environments individuals experience and the operation of social processes within populations. Although research has explored changes in individual social behaviour with age, particularly in controlled settings, there is limited understanding of how age structure governs sociality in wild populations.

Telomere length measurement by qPCR in birds is affected by storage method of blood samples.

Given the potential role of telomeres as biomarkers of individual health and ageing, there is an increasing interest in studying telomere dynamics in a wider range of taxa in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology. Measuring telomere length across the lifespan in wild animal systems is essential for testing these hypotheses, and may be aided by archived blood samples collected as part of longitudinal field studies. However, sample collection, storage, and DNA extraction methods may influence telomere length measurement, and it may, therefore, be difficult to balance consistency in sampling protocol with making the most of available samples.

Contrasting patterns of phenotypic plasticity in reproductive traits in two great tit (Parus major) populations.

Phenotypic plasticity is an important mechanism via which populations can respond to changing environmental conditions, but we know very little about how natural populations vary with respect to plasticity. Here we use random-regression animal models to understand the multivariate phenotypic and genetic patterns of plasticity variation in two key life-history traits, laying date and clutch size, using data from long-term studies of great tits in The Netherlands (Hoge Veluwe [HV]) and UK (Wytham Woods [WW]). We show that, while population-level responses of laying date and clutch size to temperature were similar in the two populations, between-individual variation in plasticity differed markedly.