Carryover effects of winter mercury contamination on summer concentrations and reproductive performance in little auks.

Many animals migrate after reproduction to respond to seasonal environmental changes. Environmental conditions experienced on non-breeding sites can have carryover effects on fitness. Exposure to harmful chemicals can vary widely between breeding and non-breeding grounds, but its carryover effects are poorly studied.

Are glucocorticoids good indicators of pregnancy constraints in a capital breeder?

Pregnancy imposes a substantial energetic demand on the mother (i.e. metabolic costs of pregnancy) and is often associated with modified maternal behavior and increased physical burdens that make females more vulnerable to predation.

Embryonic water uptake during pregnancy is stage- and fecundity-dependent in the snake Vipera aspis.

Water is a crucial resource that can profoundly impact the biology of terrestrial organisms. Early life stages are particularly sensitive to hydric constraints because water uptake is an important component of embryonic development. While amniotic eggs constitute a key innovation to terrestrial life, many vertebrates are viviparous wherein the mother must be the source of water for her developing embryos.

Stage dependence of phenotypical and phenological maternal effects: insight into squamate reptile reproductive strategies.

Enhanced thermal conditions have been credited as a driving force for the evolution of viviparity, particularly in squamate reptiles, among which it has independently evolved more than 100 times. However, maternal thermoregulation is also a critical component of reproduction in oviparous squamates, for which considerable embryonic development occurs prior to oviposition. When carrying eggs, oviparous mothers modify thermoregulation in a manner similar to that of pregnant females.

Morphological and physiological changes during reproduction and their relationships to reproductive performance in a capital breeder.

Current reproductive effort typically comes at a cost to future reproductive value by altering somatic function (e.g., growth or self-maintenance).

Structural and performance costs of reproduction in a pure capital breeder, the Children's python Antaresia childreni.

Females often manage the high energy demands associated with reproduction by accumulating and storing energy in the form of fat before initiating their reproductive effort. However, fat stores cannot satisfy all reproductive resource demands, which include considerable investment of amino acids (e.g.

Maternal influences on early development: preferred temperature prior to oviposition hastens embryogenesis and enhances offspring traits in the Children's python, Antaresia childreni.

Embryonic life is particularly sensitive to its surroundings, and the developmental environment can have long-lasting effects on offspring. In oviparous species, the impacts of the developmental environment on offspring traits are mostly examined during development within the egg. However, as more than 25% of the development of squamate reptiles can occur prior to oviposition, we explored the effect of thermal conditions on development prior to oviposition in an oviparous snake species, the Children's python (Antaresia childreni).