Colder
ambient temperatures constrain female mate preference for ornamental
traits.
Zitan Song1,2, Pinjia Que3,4,
William Jones5,
Chenjing Huang3, Naerhulan
Halimubieke6, Peng Ding7, Zhengwang
Zhang3, Yang Liu1*
1 State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of
Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518107, China
2 Comparative Socioecology group, Max Planck Institute
of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, 78467, Germany
3 Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for
Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, College of Life
Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
4 Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding,
Chengdu, China
5 Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human
Biology, University of Debrecen, H-4032 Debrecen, Hungary
6 Milner Center for Evolution, Department of Biology
and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath BA1 7AY, UK
7 College of Animal Science, Xinjiang Agricultural
University, Urumqi, 830052, China
* Corresponding author: Dr. Yang
Liu
Address.: State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Ecology, Sun
Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518107, China
Tel:
+86 84114063
Fax: +86 84111587
E-mail: liuy353@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Abstract
Male ornamentation is usually costly and may show trades-offs with other
life-history traits such as paternal care, which can subsequently affect
female preference. Studies on female mate choice have
mostly examined how mate-choice cues
differ in their expression or ability to be detected in different
environmental contexts. However, less focus has been placed on examining
how external forces affect female preferences. The purpose of this study
was to explore how parental investment strategy and mate choice were
mediated by ambient temperature. Specifically, we examined how male
ornamentation characteristics and subsequent female incubation
investment were impacted by ambient temperature in four plover
populations that were breeding
across an environmental gradient. We discovered that larger males had
more ornamented plumage in warmer conditions, and they were favored by
larger females who invested an elevated time into incubation. In
contrast, in cooler conditions, males’ body size and the color of their
ornaments were inversely associated, and females showed weak preference
for males with more colorful ornaments. These results imply that female
preference for male ornament can change in response to ambient
temperature and demonstrate that female preference for male
ornamentation may be limited in harsher conditions with higher parental
care expenses.
Keywords: parental care, mate
choice
preference, ambient temperature, incubation, plover