Strength of developmental carry-over varies continuously with environmental conditions in a wild bird population
- 1University of Oxford
Abstract
Early-life phenotypes frequently predict adult phenotypes through developmental 'silver-spoon' carry-over effects, but how strongly and under what circumstances? Using 40 years of individual-based data from a great tit (Parus major) population, we used covariance reaction norms to understand how the natal-to-adult body mass association shifts across temperature, rainfall, and population density gradients during both life stages. We show that the natal-adult mass correlation is substantial (r {approx} 0.7) but strongly environment-dependent. Reaction norm shapes across climatic and density axes point to distinct mechanisms, including compensatory growth under benign adult conditions and density-dependent modulation of early-life differences. We further show that the conditions experienced in adulthood largely drive these patterns and determine whether early-life advantages are retained, even when explicitly tested within an environmental-matching paradigm. Decomposing the correlation using 38 generations of pedigree data revealed no evidence of gene-by-environment interactions. Instead, the observed phenotypic correlation reaction norms could be attributed almost entirely to environmentally-sensitive non-genetic individual differences. Overall, our findings show that climatic and demographic shifts can substantially reshape developmental carry-over without altering the genetic architecture tying body mass across life stages, with implications for how reliably early-life mass can predict individual quality and adult traits in wild animal populations.
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BibTeX
@misc{satarkar2026strength,
title = {{Strength of developmental carry-over varies continuously with environmental conditions in a wild bird population}},
author = {D. Satarkar and D. Lopez-Idiaquez and L. Bliard and I. Sepil and B. C. Sheldon},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.18.752706},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752706v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Strength of developmental carry-over varies continuously with environmental conditions in a wild bird population
AU - D. Satarkar
AU - D. Lopez-Idiaquez
AU - L. Bliard
AU - I. Sepil
AU - B. C. Sheldon
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/18
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.18.752706
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752706v1
AB - Early-life phenotypes frequently predict adult phenotypes through developmental 'silver-spoon' carry-over effects, but how strongly and under what circumstances? Using 40 years of individual-based data from a great tit (Parus major) population, we used covariance reaction norms to understand how the natal-to-adult body mass association shifts across temperature, rainfall, and population density gradients during both life stages. We show that the natal-adult mass correlation is substantial (r {approx} 0.7) but strongly environment-dependent. Reaction norm shapes across climatic and density axes point to distinct mechanisms, including compensatory growth under benign adult conditions and density-dependent modulation of early-life differences. We further show that the conditions experienced in adulthood largely drive these patterns and determine whether early-life advantages are retained, even when explicitly tested within an environmental-matching paradigm. Decomposing the correlation using 38 generations of pedigree data revealed no evidence of gene-by-environment interactions. Instead, the observed phenotypic correlation reaction norms could be attributed almost entirely to environmentally-sensitive non-genetic individual differences. Overall, our findings show that climatic and demographic shifts can substantially reshape developmental carry-over without altering the genetic architecture tying body mass across life stages, with implications for how reliably early-life mass can predict individual quality and adult traits in wild animal populations.
ER -