Adaptive plasticity in mate preference linked to differences in reproductive effort

Anna Qvarnström (), Tomas Pärt and Ben C. Sheldon
Additional contact information
Anna Qvarnström: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Tomas Pärt: Department of Conservation Biology Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Ben C. Sheldon: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University

Nature, 2000, vol. 405, issue 6784, 344-347

Abstract: Abstract There is abundant evidence for the existence of marked mate preferences in natural populations, but the occurrence of within-population variation in mate preferences has received little attention1,2,3 and is often regarded as nonadaptive deviation from the optimal norm2,3. Here we show experimentally that the preference of female collared flycatchers Ficedula albicollis for male forehead patch size, a sexually selected trait4,5,6, varies with the time of breeding, an environmental factor with strong effects on reproductive success. Contrary to expectations based on time-constrained choice models7,8, only late-breeding females prefer males with a large patch size. The variation in mate preference matches a seasonal change in female reproductive success: long-term data reveal a positive relationship between female reproductive success and male patch size exclusively in late breeders. In addition, female reproductive effort, as assessed by clutch size, appears to be adjusted relative to both timing of breeding and male phenotype. We conclude that not only can mate preferences display adaptive plasticity within populations, but this plasticity can also be linked to differences in reproductive investment.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35012605 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:405:y:2000:i:6784:d:10.1038_35012605

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35012605

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().