The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Heritability of dispersal in the great reed warbler

Author

Summary, in English

Dispersal is commonly considered to be a condition-dependent behaviour with no or low heritability. Here, we show that dispersal in the great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus ) has a high heritability. Analyses of capture-recapture data of male great reed warblers gathered from the species' whole Swedish breeding range revealed a remarkable offspring-parent resemblance in dispersal behaviour (philopatry vs. inter-population dispersal). Also, the degree of dispersal differed between cohorts, which shows that dispersal was partly conditionally dependent. The offspring to mid-parent estimate of heritability was 0.50. In a previous study of the same data set of male offspring, we did not detect associations between dispersal and several relevant environmental, parental and offspring condition factors. Thus, our results indicate that variation in dispersal partly has a genetic basis in great reed warblers.

Publishing year

2003

Language

English

Pages

290-294

Publication/Series

Ecology Letters

Volume

6

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Status

Published

Project

  • Long-term study of great reed warblers

Research group

  • Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1461-023X