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Sociality
Sociality
We study the evolutionary basis of social behaviours. In particular, we are interested in how parental care and social association evolve. Parental care is an amazign behaviour where a bird catches prey, to forgo eating it itself, in favour of feeding it to its young. It is a clear demonstration of the principle of sacrificing self-maintenance in favour of future fitness – feeding self is direct, and guaranteed benefit while the future fitness benefit of feeding the offspring is far from guaranteed! Tie into this the sexual conflict - can I maybe reduce my efford if my partner will increase it – and it becomes quickly a rather complex behaviour that is fascinating to disentangle.
We are studying the genetic basis of parental care, and have recently forayed into machine learning techniques to quantify parental care behaviour.
Sexual selection and mate choice
Sexual selection and mate choice
Some birds cheat. Extra-pair reproduction is when birds seek matings outside a social pair bond. This behaviour gains direct fitness benefits to males – more offspring at little to no costs of rearing them – while female benefits are far from clear. This is because females only replace one within-pair egg with one fertilised by an extra-pair sire. So all she get is an exchange of the set of paternal genes for one of her offspring. This is the pinnacle of sexual selection under a magnifying glass - only genetic benefits. However, it has proven difficult to support this assumption with hard evidence – that the extra-pair males' genes are beneficial the female and the offspring. In birds, it seems rather that the extra-pair genes are not beneficial, and sometimes even worse. So it remains a mystery why female birds cheat.
We aim to resolve this phenomenon in various ways, from pleiotropic effects over social dominance, social networks to age-specific effects.
Papers
Papers
Dobson S, Dunning J, Burke T, Chik HYJ, Schroeder J. Indirect genetic effects increase heritability estimates for male and female extra-pair reproduction. Evolution. In press. https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpad100
Dunning J, Burke T, Chan AHH, Chik HYJ, Evans T, Schroeder J. Increased opposite sex association is linked with fitness benefits, but sociality is stable over lifetime. Behav Ecol. Early view, https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arac124
Alif VZ, Dunning J, Chik HYJ, Burke T, Schroeder J. 2022. What is the best fitness measure in wild populations? A case study on the power of short-term fitness proxies to predict reproductive value. PLOS One. 17(4): e0260905. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260905
Plaza M, Burke T, Cox T, Flynn-Carroll A, Girndt A, Halford G, Martin DA, Sánchez-Fortún M, Sánchez-Tójar A, Somerville J, Schroeder J. 2020. Social network node-based metrics can function as proxies for animal personality traits. J. Evol. Biol., 33(11):16341642. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.13703
Girndt A, Cockburn G, Sánchez Tójar A, Hertel M, Burke T, Schroeder J (2019) Male age and its association with reproductive traits in captive and wild house sparrows. Journal for Evolutionary Biology. 32(12), 1432–1443. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.13542
Valdebenito J O, Marínez-de la Puentee J, Castro M, Pérez-Hurtado A, Tejera G, Székely T, Halimubieke N, Schroeder J, Figuerola J. 2020. Association of insularity with cloacal bacteria prevalence in a small shorebird. PLOS One. 15(8) 30237369. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237369
Pipoly I, Szabo K, Bokony V, Preiszner B, Seress G, Schroeder J, Liker A. 2019. Higher frequency of extra-pair offspring in urban than in forest broods of great tits (Parus major). Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 7, 229. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00229
Lattore M, Nakagawa S, Burke T, Plaza M, Schroeder J 2019. No evidence for kin recognition in a passerine bird. PlosOne, 14(10), e.213486. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213486
Ihle M, Pick JL, Winney I, Nakagawa S, Schroeder J, Burke T. 2019. Rearing success does not improve with apparent pair coordination in offspring provisioning. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 7:405. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00405
Sanchez-Tójar, A. Nakagawa, S, Sanchez-Fortun, M, Martin, DC, Ramani S, Girndt A, Bokony V, Kempenaers B, Liker A, Westneat D, Burke T, Schroeder J. 2018. Meta-analysis challenges a textbook example of status signaling evidence for publication bias. eLife, 7, e37385. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.37385
Girndt A, Chng CWT, Burke T, Schroeder J 2018. Male age is associated with extra-pair paternity, but not with extra-pair mating behaviour. Sci Rep, 8:8378. https//doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26649-1.
Schroeder J, Winney I, Bennett S, Sánchez-Tójar A, Girndt A 2018. The secret life of the Lundy house sparrows. J. Lundy Field Soc. 6, 101-104.
Winney I, Schroeder J, Nakagawa S, Hsu Y-H, Simons, M, Sánchez-Tójar A, Mannarelli M-E, Burke T 2018. Heritability and social brood effects in personality in juvenile and adult life-history stages in a wild passerine. J. Evol. Biol., 31. 75–87. Doi: 10.1111/jeb.13197
Sanchéz-Tójar A, Schroeder J, Farine DR. 2018. A practical guide for inferring reliable dominance hierarchies and estimating their uncertainty. J. Anim. Ecol. 87:594–6-8. Doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.12776
Sanchéz Tójar, A, Winney I, Nakagawa S, Burke T, Schroeder J. 2017. Winter territory prospecting is associated with life-history stage but not personality. J. Avian Biol. 48, 407–419. DOI: 10.1111/jav.01055
Schroeder J, Simons M, Winney I, Hsu Y-H, Nakagawa S, Burke T 2016. Predictably philandering females prompt poor paternal provisioning. The American Naturalist, 188, 219–230.
Nakagawa S, Schroeder J, Burke T. 2015. Sugar-free extra pair mating. Behav. Ecol. 26, 971–972.
Hsu Y-H, Schroeder J, Winney I, Burke T, Nakagawa S. 2015. Are extra-pair males different from within-pair males? A case study and a meta-analytic examination. Mol. Ecol., 24, 1558-1571.
Karlsson M, Schroeder J, Nakagawa S, Smith H, Burke T, Westerdahl H 2015. House sparrow (Passer domesticus) survival is not associated with MHC-I diversity, but possibly with specific MHC-I alleles. J. Avian Biol., 46, 167-174.
Hsu Y-H., Schroeder J., Winney I, Burke T., Nakagawa S. 2014. Costly infidelity: Low lifetime fitness of extra-pair offspring in a passerine bird. Evolution 68, 2873–2884.
Edwards H, Winney I, Schroeder J, Dugdale H 2013. Do rapid assays predict repeatability in labile (behavioural) traits?: a reply to Biro. Anim. Behav., 85, e1-e3.
Schroeder J, Cleasby IR, Dugdale HL, Nakagawa S, Burke T 2013. Social and genetic benefits of parental investment suggest sex differences in selection pressures. J. Avian Biol., 44, 133-140.
Schroeder J, Nakagawa S, Hinsch M 2011. Behavioural ecology is not an endangered discipline. Trends Ecol. Evol. 26, 320-321.
Schroeder, J. Roodbergen M, van Gestel J, van den Brink V, Groen N, Gerritsen G 2010. Linking male plumage ornamentation with timing of breeding and egg volume in the Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit. Wader Study Group Bull. 177, 85-90.
Schroeder J, Kentie R, van der Velde M, Hooijmeijer J, Both C, Haddrath O, Baker AJ, Piersma T. 2010. Linking intronic polymorphism on the CHD1-Z gene with fitness correlates in Black-tailed Godwits. Ibis 152, 368-377.
Schroeder J, Lourenço PM, Hooijmeijer J, Both C, Piersma T 2009. A possible case of contemporary selection leading to a decrease in sexual plumage dimorphism in a grassland-breeding shorebird. Behav. Ecol. 20, 797-807.
Schroeder J, Lourenço PM, van der Velde M, Hooijmeijer J, Both C, Piersma T 2008. Sexual dimorphism in plumage and size in Black-tailed Godwits. Ardea 96, 25-37.
Van den Brink V, Schroeder J, Both C, Lourenço PM, Hooijmeijer J, Piersma T 2008. Space use by Black-tailed Godwits during settlement at a previous or a new nest location. Bird Study 55, 188-193
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