Contrasted Patterns Of Age-Specific Reproduction In Long-Lived Seabirds

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Also Included In: Veterinary
Article Date: 02 Oct 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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The process of aging and senescence are still poorly understood, but it is generally considered that when they occur they should be similar in closely related species. By using an exceptional dataset collected over more than 40 years we have assessed age-specific variations of breeding success in two closeley related species.

We show that reproductive senescence clearly occurred from 21 years of age onwards in the southern fulmar whereas we did not report any decline in the breeding success of the snow petrel, and only a very late decrease in the proportion of breeders occurred at 34 years.

This unexpected result suggest that differences in life history traits such as size or migratory behaviour, may be important for the selection of senescence.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Proceedings B is the Royal Society's flagship biological research journal, dedicated to the rapid publication and broad dissemination of high-quality research papers, reviews and comment and reply papers. The scope of journal is diverse and is especially strong in organismal biology.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences