NDLI: Laying date, incubation and egg breakage as determinants of bacterial load on bird eggshells: experimental evidence

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Soler, Juan José Ruiz Rodríguez, Magdalena Martín Vivaldi, Manuel Peralta Sánchez, Juan Manuel Ruiz Castella, Cristina Tomás, Gustavo
Copyright Year	2015
Abstract	Exploring factors guiding interactions of bacterial communities with animals has become of primary importance for ecologists and evolutionary biologists during the last years because of their likely central role in the evolution of animal life history traits. We explored the association between laying date and eggshell bacterial load (mesophilic bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae, Staphylococci, and Enterococci) in natural and artificial magpie (Pica pica) nests containing fresh commercial quail (Coturnix coturnix) eggs. We manipulated hygiene conditions by spilling egg contents on magpie and artificial nests and explored experimental effects during the breeding season. Egg breakage is a common outcome of brood parasitism by great spotted cuckoos (Clamator glandarius) on the nests of magpie, one of its main hosts. We found that the treatment increased eggshell bacterial load in artificial nests, but not in magpie nests with incubating females, which suggests that parental activity prevents the proliferation of bacteria on the eggshells in relation to egg breakage. Moreover, laying date was positively related to eggshell bacterial load in active magpie nests, but negatively in artificial nests. The results suggest that variation in parental characteristics of magpies rather than climatic variation during the breeding season explained the detected positive association. Because the eggshell bacterial load is a proxy of hatching success, the detected positive association between eggshell bacterial loads and laying date in natural, but not in artificial nests, suggests that the generalized negative association between laying date and avian breeding success can be, at least partially, explained by differential bacterial effects.
Starting Page	63
Ending Page	74
Page Count	12
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00298549
Journal	Oecologia
Volume Number	179
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	14321939
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publisher Date	2015-04-26
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Brood parasitism Climate change Life history traits Nest characteristics Parental activity Ecology Plant Sciences Hydrology/Water Resources
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

A Meta-Analysis of Avian Egg Traits Cueing Egg-Rejection Defenses Against Brood Parasitism

Nest destruction elicits indiscriminate con‐ versus heterospecific brood parasitism in a captive bird

Avian Egg Timers: Female Cowbirds Judge Past, Present, and Future When Making Nest Parasitism Decisions

Data from: Thick eggshells of brood parasitic cowbirds protect their eggs and damage host eggs during laying (Dataset)

Manipulation of parental effort affects plumage bacterial load in a wild passerine

Egg-laying, incubation and intraspecific nest parasitism by the Mandarin DuckAix galericulata

Linking nest predation with brood parasitism in captive zebra finches: a multi-pair study

Did extreme nest predation favor the evolution of obligate brood parasitism in a duck?

Brood parasitism disproportionately increases nest provisioning and helper recruitment in a cooperatively breeding bird

Laying date, incubation and egg breakage as determinants of bacterial load on bird eggshells: experimental evidence

Similar Documents

A Meta-Analysis of Avian Egg Traits Cueing Egg-Rejection Defenses Against Brood Parasitism

Nest destruction elicits indiscriminate con‐ versus heterospecific brood parasitism in a captive bird

Avian Egg Timers: Female Cowbirds Judge Past, Present, and Future When Making Nest Parasitism Decisions

Data from: Thick eggshells of brood parasitic cowbirds protect their eggs and damage host eggs during laying (Dataset)

Manipulation of parental effort affects plumage bacterial load in a wild passerine

Egg-laying, incubation and intraspecific nest parasitism by the Mandarin DuckAix galericulata

Linking nest predation with brood parasitism in captive zebra finches: a multi-pair study

Did extreme nest predation favor the evolution of obligate brood parasitism in a duck?

Brood parasitism disproportionately increases nest provisioning and helper recruitment in a cooperatively breeding bird

Laying date, incubation and egg breakage as determinants of bacterial load on bird eggshells: experimental evidence