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Science 8 July 1983:
Vol. 221. no. 4606, pp. 184 - 186
DOI: 10.1126/science.221.4606.184
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Articles

Environmental Component of Morphological Differentiation in Birds

FRANCES C. JAMES 1

1 Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee 32306

Geographic character variation in birds is usually attributed to natural selection for phenotypes that reflect locally adapted genetic differences. However, experimental transplants of red-winged blackbird eggs between nests in northern and southern Florida, and from Colorado to Minnesota, show that in this species a significant proportion of the regional differences in nestling development is nongenetic. If natural selection is maintaining the clines of character variation that are observed in adult phenotypes, the genetic and nongenetic components of phenotypic variation must covary.

Submitted on July 21, 1982
Revised on February 7, 1983


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Genetic Variation and Causes of Genotype-Environment Interaction in the Body Size of Blue Tit (Parus caeruleus).
J. Merila and J. D. Fry (1998)
Genetics 148, 1233-1244
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)