No evidence of immediate fitness benefits of within-season divorce in monogamous birds

Culina, Antica, and Brouwer, Lyanne (2022) No evidence of immediate fitness benefits of within-season divorce in monogamous birds. Biology Letters, 18 (5). 20210671.

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Abstract

Individuals of socially monogamous species can correct for suboptimal partnerships via two secondary mating strategies: divorce and extra-pair mating, with the former potentially providing both genetic and social benefits. Divorcing between breeding seasons has been shown to be generally adaptive behaviour across monogamous birds. Interestingly, some pairs also divorce during the breeding season, when constraints on finding a new partner are stronger. Despite being important for a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of social monogamy, whether within-season divorce is adaptive and how it relates to extra-pair mating remains unknown. Here, we meta-analysed 90 effect sizes on within-season divorce and breeding success, extracted from 31 studies on 24 species. We found no evidence that within-season divorce is adaptive for breeding success. However, the large heterogeneity of effect sizes and strong phylogenetic signal suggest social and environmental factors—which have rarely been considered in empirical studies—may play an important role in explaining variation among populations and species. Furthermore, we found no evidence that within-season divorce and extra-pair mating are complementary strategies. We discuss our findings within the current evidence of the adaptiveness of secondary mating strategies and their interplay that ultimately shapes the evolution of social monogamy.

Item ID: 74202
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1744-957X
Keywords: within-season divorce, birds, monogamy, meta-analysis, extra-pair paternity
Copyright Information: © 2022 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Research Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3n5tb2rkq
Date Deposited: 05 Jun 2022 23:21
FoR Codes: 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310301 Behavioural ecology @ 100%
SEO Codes: 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280102 Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences @ 100%
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