Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/B504106/1
Components of fitness in the Seychelles Warbler.
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor TA Burke, University of Sheffield, Animal and Plant Sciences
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor Ds Richardson, University of East Anglia, Biological Sciences
- Grant held at:
- University of Sheffield, Animal and Plant Sciences
- Science Area:
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Terrestrial
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Science Topics:
- Population Genetics/Evolution
- Conservation Ecology
- Population Ecology
- Behavioural Ecology
- Abstract:
- This study will focus on a model species for behavioural and ecological research, the Seychelles warbler. Although once on the verge of extinction this species now has three healthy populations on different islands in the Seychelles archipelago. Previous work, including that funded by the NERO, has revealed that this species is a cooperative breeder, so that birds often help to raise offspring other than their own. Most helpers are females born on the territory where they help, and it has been shown that female eggs tend to be produced in those territories where there is a 'vacancy' for a helper. Helping can be explained in terms of the 'selfish gene', because helpers are normally related to the individuals that they help to raise. However, we have recently discovered that the main benefit of helping is that it often provides the opportunity to raise the helper's own offspring in the host's nest. Females generally only help to raise offspring that are their maternal brothers or sisters. They are less likely to be related through the male line because 4/10 offspring are the result of infidelity by females with their male neighbours, and so they do not help if their presumed father remains on the territory but their mother has died. Individual Seychelles warblers therefore have many behavioural decisions, such as should they leave home or stay to help, should they feed and protect the chick at the nest a lot or a little, should they produce a female or a male egg, should a female be faithful to their mate or find a male with different genes elsewhere? By using DNA profiling, this study will accurately determine the genetic advantages, in terms of genes transmitted to the next generation, of these alternative behaviours. Additionally we will find out whether these behaviours are totally flexible - so that individuals can do what is best for themselves at all times - or whether they are affected by genetic differences among individuals. We know, for example, that males vary in their aggressiveness towards others. Are these differences caused by the environment, including their experience in the egg, or by their genes? The project is a collaboration among several institutions: the Universities of Sheffield and East Anglia, where the laboratory studies will be carried out and from where the project will be managed, with the Universities of Groningen in the Netherlands and the University of Alberta in Canada, which respectively have long-term expertise in the study species and the statistical methods that we wish to employ. The UK-funded element of the project will cost #260k, with a comparable contribution to cover the fieldwork from the Netherlands government. The project will make a significant contribution to our understanding of how organisms are adapted to their environment and the extent to which this adaptation is flexible or constrained by their genes. While making an important contribution to our understanding of how organisms have evolved to exploit the environment, this knowledge is vital to our understanding of how organisms will cope with our rapidly changing environment - either due to climate change or habitat loss.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/B504106/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Standard Grants Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Standard Grant
This grant award has a total value of £266,013
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Staff | Total - T&S | Total - Other Costs | Total - Equipment | Total - Indirect Costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £148,707 | £12,644 | £31,778 | £4,477 | £68,405 |
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