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Science 30 March 2001:
Vol. 291. no. 5513, pp. 2598 - 2600
DOI: 10.1126/science.1057487
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Reports

Energetic and Fitness Costs of Mismatching Resource Supply and Demand in Seasonally Breeding Birds

Donald W. Thomas,1* Jacques Blondel,2 Philippe Perret,2 Marcel M. Lambrechts,2 John R. Speakman3

By advancing spring leaf flush and ensuing food availability, climatic warming results in a mismatch between the timing of peak food supply and nestling demand, shifting the optimal time for reproduction in birds. Two populations of blue tits (Parus caeruleus) that breed at different dates in similar, but spatially distinct, habitat types in Corsica and southern France provide a unique opportunity to quantify the energetic and fitness consequences when breeding is mismatched with local productivity. As food supply and demand become progressively mismatched, the increased cost of rearing young pushes the metabolic effort of adults beyond their apparent sustainable limit, drastically reducing the persistence of adults in the breeding population. We provide evidence that the economics of parental foraging and limits to sustainable metabolic effort are key selective forces underlying synchronized seasonal breeding and long-term shifts in breeding date in response to climatic change.

1 Groupe de Recherche en Écologie, Nutrition et Énergétique, Département de Biologie, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec J1K 2R1, Canada.
2 Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive, CNRS, 1919 route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
3 Department of Zoology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 2TZ, UK, and Rowett Research Institute, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, UK.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: d.thomas{at}courrier.usherb.ca

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