van de Pol, Martijn, Heg, Dik, Bruinzeel, Leo W., Kuijper, Bram, and Verhulst, Simon (2006) Experimental evidence for a causal effect of pair-bond duration on reproductive performance in oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus). Behavioral Ecology, 17 (6). pp. 982-991.

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Abstract

Many studies have suggested that reproductive performance improves during the pair-bond, which might explain why individuals remate with the same partner in many species. However, discussion exists about whether the association between reproductive performance and pair-bond duration that is reported in these studies reflects a causal relationship. Usually it is unclear whether a positive association is caused by pairs improving during their pair-bond or by high-quality pairs staying together for longer. Furthermore, reproductive performance often also depends on the age or breeding experience of parents, which all covary with pair-bond duration. A much needed experimental approach is lacking so far. We investigated the effect of pair-bond duration on reproductive performance in a long-lived monogamous bird species based on natural as well as experimental variation. The duration of oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) pair-bonds, which were followed for 21 years, strongly affected reproductive output, even after controlling for effects of age and breeding experience. Pairs improved during their pair-bond, and there were no indications of selective disappearance of low-quality pairs; however, pairs that stayed together for very long performed badly. Experimental removal of one partner showed that the reproductive cost of divorce depended on the pair-bond duration with the old partner. In addition, after remating, the newly formed pairs strongly improved again, independent of the age and breeding experience of the remated pair members. As such, this study provides the first experimental evidence of a causal effect of pair-bond duration on reproductive performance.

Item ID:	80104
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1465-7279
Copyright Information:	© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Date Deposited:	01 Sep 2023 05:31
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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