Fitness in male black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) : effects of life histories and sexual selection on male lifetime mating success

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Kervinen, Matti
Copyright Year	2013
Abstract	Kervinen, Matti Fitness in male black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) – Effects of life histories and sexual selection on male lifetime mating success Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2013, 48 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Biological and Environmental Science ISSN 1456-9701; 271) ISBN 978-951-39-5503-8 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-5504-5 (PDF) Yhteenveto: Teerikoiraiden (Tetrao tetrix) kelpoisuus – Elinkiertopiirteiden ja seksuaalivalinnan vaikutukset koiraiden elinikäiseen parittelumenestykseen Diss. Fitness, which describes individuals’ overall genetic contribution to the next generation(s), is a central concept in evolutionary ecology, as it results from individuals’ ability to survive and reproduce and hence reflects individuals’ life histories and the selection acting on them. As individual age is typically related to both male mating success and sexual traits determining mating success, it is crucial to use longitudinal individual-level data to account for age effects when quantifying the relationship between male traits and mating success to avoid overestimation of the role of sexual selection. We used such data describing male morphological traits, behavioural traits and mating success in the lekking black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) to quantify the relative contribution of life histories and sexual selection to the overall variation in male fitness. As predicted, the opportunity for sexual selection was high as male annual and lifetime mating success were highly skewed. Male annual mating success and the expression of male morphological and behavioural traits increased with age until declined towards the end of life. We found evidence of terminal investment in reproduction, indicating high viability costs of lekking especially in short-lived males, suggesting that long-lived males were high overall genetic quality, as they had proven their viability. Sexual selection acted directly mainly on male behaviours and indirectly on male morphological traits, suggesting that behaviours act as better cues to females of male overall genetic quality and that females use morphological traits as age cues, thereby promoting the maintenance of multiple ornaments in this species. Such indirect selection on male morphological traits associated with strong condition-dependence of both morphological and behavioural traits makes it unlikely that the consistent selection on these traits through female choice will lead to the depletion of the additive genetic variance in these traits and male fitness, meaning that females likely gain indirect fitness benefits through their preference for dominant males.
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Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article