| shifts in bacterial communities of eggshells and antimicrobial activities in eggs during incubation in a ground-nesting passerine. | microbial invasion of egg contents is a cause of embryonic death. to counter infection risks, the embryo is protected physically by the eggshell and chemically by antimicrobial proteins. if microbial pressure drives embryo mortality, then females may have evolved, through natural selection, to adapt their immune investment into eggs. although frequently hypothesized, this match between immune allocation and microorganisms has not been explored yet. to examine if correlations between microbes on ... | 2015 | 25880684 |
| multilocus phylogeny of the avian family alaudidae (larks) reveals complex morphological evolution, non-monophyletic genera and hidden species diversity. | the alaudidae (larks) is a large family of songbirds in the superfamily sylvioidea. larks are cosmopolitan, although species-level diversity is by far largest in africa, followed by eurasia, whereas australasia and the new world have only one species each. the present study is the first comprehensive phylogeny of the alaudidae. it includes 83.5% of all species and representatives from all recognised genera, and was based on two mitochondrial and three nuclear loci (in total 6.4 kbp, although not ... | 2013 | 23792153 |
| geographical and temporal variation in environmental conditions affects nestling growth but not immune function in a year-round breeding equatorial lark. | variation in growth and immune function within and among populations is often associated with specific environmental conditions. we compared growth and immune function in nestlings of year-round breeding equatorial red-capped lark calandrella cinerea from south kinangop, north kinangop and kedong (kenya), three locations that are geographically close but climatically distinct. in addition, we studied growth and immune function of lark nestlings as a function of year-round variation in breeding i ... | 2017 | 28559918 |
| year-round breeding equatorial larks from three climatically-distinct populations do not use rainfall, temperature or invertebrate biomass to time reproduction. | timing of reproduction in birds is important for reproductive success and is known to depend on environmental cues such as day length and food availability. however, in equatorial regions, where day length is nearly constant, other factors such as rainfall and temperature are thought to determine timing of reproduction. rainfall can vary at small spatial and temporal scales, providing a highly fluctuating and unpredictable environmental cue. in this study we investigated the extent to which spat ... | 2017 | 28419105 |