Inclusive Fitness May Explain Some but Not All Benefits Derived from Helping Behavior in a Cooperatively Breeding Bird.

AbstractIn cooperative breeding systems, inclusive fitness theory predicts that nonbreeding helpers more closely related to the breeders should be more willing to provide costly alloparental care and thus have more impact on breeder fitness. In the red-cockaded woodpecker (), most helpers are the breeders' earlier offspring, but helpers do vary within groups in both relatedness to the breeders (some even being unrelated) and sex, and it can be difficult to parse their separate impacts on breeder fitness. Moreover, most support for inclusive fitness theory has been positive associations between relatedness and behavior rather than actual fitness consequences.

Effects of cavity orientation on nesting success inferred from long-term monitoring of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.

Animals that create structures often display non-random patterns in the direction of their constructions. This tendency of oriented construction is widely presumed to be an adaptive trait of the constructor's extended phenotype, but there is little empirical support for this hypothesis. Particularly, for cavity nesting-birds there is a lack of studies examining this issue.

Cavities excavated by woodpeckers limit populations of other cavity-nesting birds.

Research Highlight: Trzcinski, M., Cockle, K., Norris, A.

Ecosystem-based management for military training, biodiversity, carbon storage and climate resiliency on a complex coastal land/water-scape.

The Defense Coastal/Estuarine Research Program (DCERP) was a 10-year multi-investigator project funded by the Department of Defense to improve understanding of ecosystem processes and their interactions with natural and anthropogenic stressors at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune (MCBCL) located in coastal North Carolina. The project was aimed at facilitating ecosystem-based management (EBM) at the MCBCL and other coastal military installations. Because of its scope, interdisciplinary character, and duration, DCERP embodied many of the opportunities and challenges associated with EBM, including the need for explicit goals, system models, long-term perspectives, systems complexity, change inevitability, consideration of humans as ecosystem components, and program adaptability and accountability.

Changes in genetic diversity and differentiation in Red-cockaded woodpeckers () over the past century.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers (RCW; ) declined after human activities reduced their fire-maintained pine ecosystem to <3% of its historical range in the southeastern United States and degraded remaining habitat. An estimated 1.6 million RCW cooperative breeding groups declined to about 3,500 groups with no more than 10,000 birds by 1978.

Experimental evidence of a symbiosis between red-cockaded woodpeckers and fungi.

Primary cavity excavators, such as woodpeckers, are ecosystem engineers in many systems. Associations between cavity excavators and fungi have long been hypothesized to facilitate cavity excavation, but these relationships have not been experimentally verified. Fungi may help excavators by softening wood, while excavators may facilitate fungal dispersal.

Body Condition Indices Predict Reproductive Success but Not Survival in a Sedentary, Tropical Bird.

Body condition may predict individual fitness because those in better condition have more resources to allocate towards improving their fitness. However, the hypothesis that condition indices are meaningful proxies for fitness has been questioned. Here, we ask if intraspecific variation in condition indices predicts annual reproductive success and survival.

Defining and evaluating the umbrella species concept for conserving and restoring landscape connectivity.

Conserving or restoring landscape connectivity between patches of breeding habitat is a common strategy to protect threatened species from habitat fragmentation. By managing connectivity for some species, usually charismatic vertebrates, it is often assumed that these species will serve as conservation umbrellas for other species. We tested this assumption by developing a quantitative method to measure overlap in dispersal habitat of 3 threatened species-a bird (the umbrella), a butterfly, and a frog-inhabiting the same fragmented landscape.

Experimental support for food limitation of a short-distance migratory bird wintering in the temperate zone.

The Winter Food Limitation Hypothesis (WFLH) states that winter food abundance is a dominant source of population limitation of migratory birds. Evidence is accumulating that long-distance migratory birds wintering in tropical climates have high overwinter survival probabilities and that winter food limitation mainly affects their fitness nonlethally by limiting energetic reserves necessary for successful reproduction. In contrast, the relative roles of direct mortality vs.

Population models for social species: lessons learned from models of Red‐cockaded Woodpeckers (Picoides borealis).

Behavior can have major impacts on the population dynamics of social species and should be incorporated into demographic models to realistically evaluate population trends and extinction risk. We compared the predictions of a stage- and age-based matrix model, an individual-based model (IBM, developed in the program Vortex), and a spatially explicit individual-based model (SEPM) with the actual dynamics of a population of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers (RCW; Picoides borealis) in the Sandhills of North Carolina, USA. Predictions, including population size, composition, and growth rate, differed the most from actual population characteristics for models that did not incorporate social structure.

Variation in body condition indices of crimson finches by sex, breeding stage, age, time of day, and year.

Body condition indices are increasingly applied in conservation to assess habitat quality, identify stressed populations before they decline, determine effects of disturbances, and understand mechanisms of declines. To employ condition indices in this manner, we need first to understand their baseline variability and sources of variation. Here, we used crimson finches (Neochmia phaeton), a tropical passerine, to describe the variation in seven commonly used condition indices by sex, age, breeding stage, time of day, and year.

Variation in migratory behavior influences regional genetic diversity and structure among American Kestrel populations (Falco sparverius) in North America.

Birds employ numerous strategies to cope with seasonal fluctuations in high-quality habitat availability. Long distance migration is a common tactic; however, partial migration is especially common among broadly distributed species. Under partial migration systems, a portion of a species migrates, whereas the remainder inhabits breeding grounds year round.

Proximate and ultimate factors that promote aggregated breeding in the Western Sandpiper.

We report that Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri) on Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta exhibited aggregated breeding behavior at a relatively small spatial scale. Prior to clutch initiation, males performing song flight displays on a 36 ha plot were aggregated as were subsequent initial nesting attempts on the plot. We tested three hypotheses commonly invoked to explain aggregated breeding in territorial species (social mate choice, predation, and material resources hypotheses), and found support for the material resources hypothesis, as dispersed individuals were more often associated with tundra habitat patches, and aggregated individuals nested more often in undulating-tundra habitat patches compared to patch availability.

Can we improve estimates of juvenile dispersal distance and survival?

Estimates of distributions of natal dispersal distances and juvenile recruitment rates in open populations are strongly influenced by the extent and shape of the areas sampled. Techniques to improve biased dispersal and survival estimates include area-ratio methods based on weighting observations by sampling effort, the extent and shape of the area sampled, and the amount and distribution of preferred habitat surrounding the area sampled. We partitioned territories within the boundaries of a large, almost geographically closed, population of individually marked Red-cockaded Woodpeckers (Picoides borealis) and estimated dispersal and survival parameters from hypothetical smaller study areas (sampling areas) of varying sizes and shapes in order to examine whether an area-ratio method provides accurate or improved estimates of juvenile dispersal distance and survival.

Causes of reduced clutch size in a tidal marsh endemic.

We tested three hypotheses of clutch size variation in two subspecies of the swamp sparrow (Melospiza georgiana georgiana and M. g. nigrescens).

Cavity excavation and enlargement as mechanisms for indirect interactions in an avian community.

Direct and indirect species interactions within ecological communities may play a strong role in influencing or maintaining community structure. Complex community interactions pose a major challenge to predicting ecosystem responses to environmental change because predictive frameworks require identification of mechanisms by which community interactions arise. Cavity-nesting communities are well suited for mechanistic studies of species interactions because cavity nesters interact through the creation of and competition for cavity-nest sites.

Genetic and environmental influences on natal dispersal distance in a resident bird species.

We analyzed more than 1,600 dispersal events from two populations of a North American cooperatively breeding woodpecker species to determine what factors influence natal dispersal distance and whether distance traveled affects reproduction later in life. We found significant heritability of natal dispersal distance, in both males and females, indicating substantial additive genetic variance for this behavioral trait. Natal dispersal distance additionally was affected by social and ecological factors: individuals dispersing in their first year of life moved longer distances than those staying on their natal site as helpers for a prolonged time prior to dispersal, and increasing territory isolation led to longer dispersal distances.

Inbreeding and experience affect response to climate change by endangered woodpeckers.

In recent decades, female red-cockaded woodpeckers (Picoides borealis) have laid eggs increasingly earlier in response to a changing climate, as has been observed in several other bird species breeding at north temperate latitudes. Within each year, females that lay earlier are more productive than females that lay later. However, inexperienced females, experienced females who change mates and inbred birds have not adjusted to the changing climate by laying earlier, and have suffered reproductive costs as a result.

Sex-Ratio Selection in Species with Helpers at the Nest: The Repayment Model Revisited.

We reexamine the theoretical and empirical basis for the "repayment model" of Emlen, Emlen, and Levin, which predicts that the overall sex ratio of offspring in cooperative-breeding species with helpers at the nest should be biased toward the more helpful sex. We conclude that in theory the model may yield a biased sex ratio but only under restricted conditions that are unlikely to be met in most populations. In those cases where the model is potentially applicable, estimates of both direct and indirect fitness of sons and daughters are necessary in order to avoid double accounting.