ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2009
Temperature has a causal effect on avian timing of reproduction.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 71 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
71 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Environmental coupling of heritability and selection is rare and of minor evolutionary significance in wild populations.Nature ecology & evolution · 2018Pooled it
- Evolution under the city's shadow: reproductive divergence of urban and rural great tits revealed by a common garden experiment.Evolution letters · 2026Article
- Reproductive Ecology of the Lesser Rhea (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Phenological plasticity enables thermal homeostasis in a wild bird population.Science advances · 2026Article
- Divergent climate impacts despite similar response to temperature in a widespread aerial insectivore.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Continental Patterns of Phenotypic Variation Along Replicated Urban Gradients: A Mega-Analysis.Ecology letters · 2025Review
- Crosswinds During Spring Migration Carryover and Influence the Time Interval Between Arrival and Laying in a Neotropical Migrant.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF INCREASED NESTBOX TEMPERATURE AND VITAMIN E ON NESTLING GROWTH ARE ATTENUATED BY PLASTICITY IN FEMALE INCUBATION EFFORT.Ethology : formerly Zeitschrift fur Tierpsychologie · 2024Article
- Ambient Temperature Effects on the Spring and Autumn Somatic Growth Trajectory Show Plasticity in the Photoneuroendocrine Response Pathway in the Tundra Vole.Journal of biological rhythms · 2023Article
- Complex relationships between climate and reproduction in a resident montane bird.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Climatic forcing and individual heterogeneity in a resident mountain bird: legacy data reveal effects on reproductive strategies.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Potential of cinnamaldehyde essential oil as a possible antimicrobial against fowl typhoid in layers.Tropical animal health and production · 2023Article
- Long-term, climate-driven phenological shift in a tropical large carnivore.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Article
- Rapid changes in DNA methylation associated with the initiation of reproduction in a small songbird.Molecular ecology · 2021Article
- The effect of nest temperature on growth and survival in juvenile Great TitsEcology and evolution · 2021Article
- Article
- Weather and agricultural intensification determine the breeding performance of a small generalist predator.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Best environmental predictors of breeding phenology differ with elevation in a common woodland bird species.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- Factors influencing plasticity in the arrival-breeding interval in a migratory species reacting to climate change.Ecology and evolution · 2019Article
11 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many bird species reproduce earlier in years with high spring temperatures, but little is known about the causal effect of temperature. Temperature may have a direct effect on timing of reproduction but the correlation may also be indirect, for instance via food phenology. As climate change has led to substantial shifts in timing, it is essential to understand this causal relationship to predict future impacts of climate change. We tested the direct effect of temperature on laying dates in great tits (Parus major) using climatized aviaries in a 6-year experiment. We mimicked the temperature patterns from two specific years in which our wild population laid either early ('warm' treatment) or late ('cold' treatment). Laying dates were affected by temperature directly. As the relevant temperature period started three weeks prior to the mean laying date, with a range of just 4 degrees C between the warm and the cold treatments, and as the birds were fed ad libitum, it is likely that temperature acted as a cue rather than lifting an energetic constraint on the onset of egg production. We furthermore show a high correlation between the laying dates of individuals reproducing both in aviaries and in the wild, validating investigations of reproduction of wild birds in captivity. Our results demonstrate that temperature has a direct effect on timing of breeding, an important step towards assessing the implication of climate change on seasonal timing.
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