ArticleNature communications2021
Extreme temperatures compromise male and female fertility in a large desert bird.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Urban greening strategies for mitigating heat exposure and enhancing bird diversity.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Genetic Parameter Estimates and Associations Between Clutch Length and Hen-Day Egg Production Traits in Thai Native Chickens Under Heat Stress.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Cryptic Reproductive Costs of Heatwaves for Animal Populations.Global change biology · 2025Review
- Large reductions in tropical bird abundance attributable to heat extreme intensification.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- The Complex Relationship Between High Temperatures and Avian Breeding Success: Insights From a Global Review.Ecology and evolution · 2025Review
- Postnatal development in the cold render bird mitochondria more susceptible to heat stress.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Comparative Genomics Supports Ecologically Induced Selection as a Putative Driver of Banded Penguin Diversification.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Heritable variation in thermal profiles is associated with reproductive success in the world's largest bird.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- Shrinking body size may not provide meaningful thermoregulatory benefits in a warmer world.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Effects of meteorology and lunar cycle on the post-thawing quality of avian sperm.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Article
- Season and temperature do not affect cumulative live birth rate and time to live birth inFrontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- Citizen science reveals waterfowl responses to extreme winter weather.Global change biology · 2022Article
- The genetic basis and adult reproductive consequences of developmental thermal plasticity.The Journal of animal ecology · 2022Article
- Evolutionary trade-offs between heat and cold tolerance limit responses to fluctuating climates.Science advances · 2022Article
- Egg-laying increases body temperature to an annual maximum in a wild bird.Scientific reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Temperature has a crucial influence on the places where species can survive and reproduce. Past research has primarily focused on survival, making it unclear if temperature fluctuations constrain reproductive success, and if so whether populations harbour the potential to respond to climatic shifts. Here, using two decades of data from a large experimental breeding programme of the iconic ostrich (Struthio camelus) in South Africa, we show that the number of eggs females laid and the number of sperm males produced were highly sensitive to natural temperature extremes (ranging from -5 °C to 45 °C). This resulted in reductions in reproductive success of up to 44% with 5 °C deviations from their thermal optimum. In contrast, gamete quality was largely unaffected by temperature. Extreme temperatures also did not expose trade-offs between gametic traits. Instead, some females appeared to invest more in reproducing at high temperatures, which may facilitate responses to climate change. These results show that the robustness of fertility to temperature fluctuations, and not just temperature increases, is a critical aspect of species persistence in regions predicted to undergo the greatest change in climate volatility.
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Registered trials
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