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what are the benefits of focal offspring having more resources than the parents want to give?
they are richer and more fit
what are the costs of the focal offspring having more resources than the parents want to give?
their siblings are poorer (reduced fitness)
B(p)
fitness of focal offspring
C(p)
number of future offspring given up
what maximizes the difference between benefit and cost?
natural selection
offspring demand enhancing gene
it will increase fitness of the focal offspring through itself but will reduce fitness of future offspring/siblings
B(p) - ½ C(p)
what offspring should maximize (benefit to itself - 50% relatedness to future offspring x cost)
parent supply more gene
will potentially increase fitness through focal offspring and reduce by losing out on future offspring + equal chance of focal and future offspring having the gene
½ B(p) - ½ C(p)
parents should maximize this (50% relatedness x benefit of focal - 50% relatedness x cost of future offspring)
stitchbird experiment
examined resource provisioning to a current brood by parents who are likely or unlikely to have a second brood in the season
stitchbird experiment setup
supplemented adults with carotenoids to enhance reproduction then compared to a control
supplemented offspring with carotenoids to increase begging signal intensity
stitchbird experiment results
intensity of a begging signal by offspring can increase provisioning by parents but only when the costs are low enough
benefit of deserting for parent
increased quantity of offspring through remating
costs of deserting for parents
reduced quality of each offspring so lower probability of survival and fecundity
kentish plover benefits of deserting experiment set up
both patents caught on nest and one or the other is released and remating time was measured
benefits of deserting experiment results (females)
higher benefit for desertion cause remating time was shorter
benefits of deserting experiment results (males)
lower benefit cause remating time was longer
kentish plover costs of deserting experiment set up
one or the other parent was removed and brood survival was measured
costs of deserting experiment results (female)
cost was lower as brood survival was almost the same as the control group
costs of deserting experiment results (male)
higher cost for males
what is the cost of removing the parent dependent on?
size of the brood
how are benefits likely to change over the course of the breeding season?
decrease over time as the chance of successfully remating decreases as its harder for females to find a mate cause of male care
why do females provide more care later in the breeding season?
cause the benefits of deserting will be lower
why do females provide more care to bigger brood?
because costs of deserting will be higher
what are the implications of the plover population when male care predominates?
level of female care is a function of the brood size so varies with deserting cost but only when the benefits of deserting are high enough
Note 
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