Parental care is important to offspring survival in many species. Because care benefits young and is often costly to parents, it can generate fitness trade-offs that influence the evolution of family life. In particular, interactions within families are predicted to generate variation in care, which in turn causes selection on traits used to give, receive, and influence care. My dissertation examines whether such socially dynamic processes have influenced the evolution of parental and embryo behavior in glassfrogs (Centrolenidae). These Neotropical frogs have terrestrial eggs, aquatic larvae, and multiple origins of male-only care. Embryos can plastically alter hatching age, which might allow them to adaptively respond to variation in egg care. I test for parent–embryo coevolution by combining field observations (40 species), experiments (8 species), and phylogenetic comparative analyses. First, I test historical and functional hypotheses of parental care evolution. I found that uniparental egg-care is ubiquitous in centrolenids, can be provided by either sex, and benefits young. Elaborate male-only care evolved repeatedly from simpler female-only care, a pattern consistent with constraints on female-care levels. Second, I examine the diversification of male-only care, testing whether maternal changes to egg-clutch traits influence embryo dependency and if such changes are associated with male-only care. Evidence indicates that reduced female expenditure on egg-jelly evolved with, and increases the importance of, elaborate male care. Next, I evaluate whether embryos respond to behavioral and evolutionary changes in parenting. Embryos behaviorally delay hatching when parents continue caring, and evidence indicates that evolutionary increases in hatching plasticity evolved with increases in care duration. I tested if male mating success causes variation in male care, and thereby influences embryo behavior. I found that increased mating success extends male care, making nests safer, and embryos delay hatching accordingly. Finally, I examine selective tradeoffs influencing hatching plasticity by measuring hatchling phenotypes and fitness correlates. Across species, delayed hatching provides performance benefits during the larval stage. Overall, my work reveals coevolutionary interactions among mothers, fathers, and embryos. It supports that embryos respond to parentally mediated changes in egg environments and elucidates how family life alters selection on parental and embryo traits.

Orientador: Danilo Florentino Pereira / Resumo: O incubatório de ovos tem grande importância na cadeia produtiva, pois éa partir dele que a cadeia produtiva de frango é abastecida. Assim, a ineficiência noincubatório afeta todo o segmento. Foi realizado um experimento com o objetivo deobservar os efeitos da idade da matriz pesada sobre o rendimento de incubação e aperda de calor dos ovos durante o trajeto da sala de incubação até o nascedouro.Foram incubados ovos de matrizes pesadas da linhagem Cobb de três idades: 26,32 e 53 semanas. Esses ovos foram separados em dois tratamentos, sendo T0 otratamento controle, que respeitou os procedimentos adotados normalmente pelaempresa incubadora e T1, que utilizou uma caixa térmica para o transporte dos ovosdurante a transferência. Para ambos os tratamentos a transferência durou cerca de10 minutos em todas as três repetições. Após o nascimento foi realizada a contagemdos pintos nascidos, dos ovos não eclodidos, os cálculos de eclosão eeclodibilidade, a quebra dos ovos não eclodidos para averiguar em qual momento dodesenvolvimento ocorreu mortalidade embrionária, e o peso dos pintos nascidos. Osresultados obtidos mostraram que os ovos de 26 semanas tiveram maiorinfertilidade, o que fez com que a eclosão se apresentasse menor, a eclodibilidade emortalidade não foram diferentes entre as idades. O peso dos pintinhos diferiu nastrês idades mostrando que os pintinhos de matrizes mais velhas são mais pesados.Quanto à perda de calor, os resultados mostrar... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The incubatory of eggs has great importance in the production chain,since it is the supplier of the production chain. Thus, inefficiency in the incubatoryaffects the entire production chain. An experiment was performed in order to observethe effects of the broiler breeders and the heat loss of the eggs during the transferfrom the hatchery to the hatcher on the yield of the incubation. Eggs from three ages:26, 32 and 53 weeks of Cobb broiler breeders were incubated. These eggs wereseparated into two treatments: T0 as the control treatment, which complied with theprocedures normally adopted by the incubator company and T1 which used a coolerto transport the eggs during the transfer. For both treatments the transfer took about10 minutes in all the three repetitions. After the birth it was made the counting of thehatched chicks, of the unhatched eggs, the calculations of hatching and hatchability,the breaking of the unhatched eggs; all to determine at what time of the developmentthe embryonary mortality took place, and the weight of the hatched chicks. Theresults obtained showed that the eggs of the 26-week breeders had higher infertility,which led to the lower hatching. Hatchability and mortality did not differ between theages. The weight of the chicks differed in the three ages showing that the chicks ofolder breeders were heavier. Regarding the heat loss, the results showed that all theplaces evaluated had temperature and RH out of the recomme... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

<p>Tree sparrows (Passer montanus) have been studied in two areas in Sweden since 1997. At both sites, tree sparrow eggs had remarkably low hatching success. On average only 60% of the eggs hatched. Analyses have shown that this was caused by embryonic mortality, which was highly sex biased. About 70 % of the dead embryos were males, while about 65 % of all fledged nestlings were females. Impaired hatching success here related to two factors. Hatching success was lower for pairs with a male in poor body condition, and it was lower in areas with a high local population density. </p><p>A sex bias in the mortality early in life has been demonstrated in several species. Since the competitive ability of males is determined by conditions early in life, parents with poor provisioning capacity should prefer to produce female offspring in broods reared under poor conditions. The body condition of a tree sparrow during the nestling stage was well correlated to the condition as an adult, and pairs in which the male parent was in poor condition produced chicks in poor condition. Since the breeding success of a pair depended more on the condition of the male, females appear less affected by conditions early in life. Parents with poor provisioning capacity appear to bias offspring survival towards females, and a difference in the early susceptibility may be adaptive. </p><p>Changes in birth sex ratios have in some cases been suspected to result from exposure to estrogenic environmental pollutants. This was examined by exposing great- and blue tit embryos to a synthetic estrogen. Although there was a difference in the mortality rate, the difference was present also in the control groups, why this could not be attributed to estrogen exposure.</p>

Tree sparrows (Passer montanus) have been studied in two areas in Sweden since 1997. At both sites, tree sparrow eggs had remarkably low hatching success. On average only 60% of the eggs hatched. Analyses have shown that this was caused by embryonic mortality, which was highly sex biased. About 70 % of the dead embryos were males, while about 65 % of all fledged nestlings were females. Impaired hatching success here related to two factors. Hatching success was lower for pairs with a male in poor body condition, and it was lower in areas with a high local population density. A sex bias in the mortality early in life has been demonstrated in several species. Since the competitive ability of males is determined by conditions early in life, parents with poor provisioning capacity should prefer to produce female offspring in broods reared under poor conditions. The body condition of a tree sparrow during the nestling stage was well correlated to the condition as an adult, and pairs in which the male parent was in poor condition produced chicks in poor condition. Since the breeding success of a pair depended more on the condition of the male, females appear less affected by conditions early in life. Parents with poor provisioning capacity appear to bias offspring survival towards females, and a difference in the early susceptibility may be adaptive. Changes in birth sex ratios have in some cases been suspected to result from exposure to estrogenic environmental pollutants. This was examined by exposing great- and blue tit embryos to a synthetic estrogen. Although there was a difference in the mortality rate, the difference was present also in the control groups, why this could not be attributed to estrogen exposure.

Three tern species, Roseate Tern (Sterna dougalli), Bridled Tern (Sterna anaethetus) and Crested Tern (Sterna bergii) co-bred at Baisha islet, east-north of Penghu, in the summer of 2006. Each species favored different kind of environment for nesting. All Crested Terns nested in the flat plane with vegetation; Roseate Terns in the cliff near the vegetation, and Bridled Tern primarily nested near the vertical rock or under a rocky roof. The Crested Tern had the highest nesting density, and Bridled Tern nested loosely. The hatching success of Roseate (75%) and Crested Tern (73%) were significantly higher than that of Bridled Tern (30%). Roseate and Crested Tern laid eggs synchronously and had apparently two wave of egg laying and the breeding performances between early- and late-laying period were quite different. The relationship between hatching success and nest-site characteristics of the three species was investigated. The results revealed that hatching success of Roseate Tern increased with the number of walls and neighbors. Early-laying nests (79%) and central nests (72%) were more successful than late (11%) and edge nests (45%) of Roseate Terns. The laying-period was also important factors affecting hatching success of Crested Tern. Overall, the low hatching success of the late-laying nests may be due to the change of environmental conditions and the losing advantage of group breeding in the late season. The low hatching success of Bridled Tern was considered owing to the asynchronous laying pattern, loosely built nesting and weak parental behaviors.

Pre-mature hatching of fertilized eggs of cuttlefishes and squids, which are Taiwan¡¦s major fishing species, exists in the late embryonic development before yolk sacs are fully absorbed. It is so far unknown whether there is any difference in survival rate between pre-maturely developed juveniles and the fully developed ones. Hence, by laboratory incubation, this study aimed to discuss the relationship between the yolk size in the embryonic development process and embryo, as well as the difference in survival rate of juveniles developed at different developmental stages. The impact of the incubation time on the survival rate is explored in case of changing physical and chemical environmental factors (temperature, salinity, ammonia concentration, vibration etc.) The embryonic development of Sepia pharaonis can be divided into 40 stages according to the external shape and quality of the embryo. The embryo mantle length and the yolk diameter vary by time, while the increasing rate of the mantle length does not(F = 1.88, p = 0.06), increasing or decreasing in a linear relationship respectively. However, under the same environmental conditions, the consumption rate and the mantle size may vary in different batches(yolk diameter: F = 8.77, p < 0.01. mantle length: F = 92.14, p < 0.01). There is no difference in the surviving time of juveniles artificially and naturally incubated at the same developmental stage, and the surviving time will be longer if the artificially incubated juveniles are at later embryonic developmental stages(F = 34.66¡Ap < 0.01). With regard to the feeding ratio of juveniles pre-maturely hatched at different stages, the feeding ratio of the juveniles incubated after the 36th stage will increase with the developmental stages(F = 93.10¡Ap < 0.01). In this study, the temperature limit of the embryonic development of Sepia pharaonis should never be lower than 10¢J or higher than 35¢J, and the most suitable temperate range is between 17-28¢J. In case of sudden change in temperature, temperature increase can more effectively affect the pre-mature hatching than temperature decrease. In case of either the 36th or 39th stage embryos, if the temperature rises or drops by more than 10 degrees, pre-mature hatching can exist in some of the embryos. Some embryos may die if salinity is lowered suddenly below 20 psu. Meanwhile, pre-mature hatching may occur within one hour if it is suddenly lowered below 10 psu, and the unhatched embryos may die. When increasing the ammonia concentration suddenly to 1 and 5 ppm, the embryo incubation time may be lengthened compared with the group without the addition: some embryos may die if it is increased to 5 ppm. Meanwhile, most embryos are hatched pre-maturely within 17 minutes when it is increased to 1000 ppm, while those unhatched ones may die. In case of various environmental stimuli of the experiments, a higher percentage of embryos at the 39th stage got away from the hostile environment by pre-mature hatching, while a higher percentage of embryos at 36th stage continued the development until natural incubation or died. The vibration experiment is to produce vibration by a vertical vibration instrument. In case of 30-minute vibration at frequency of 350 times/minute and maximum amplitude at 2 cm, there is no effect on incubation time and mode of embryos at both stages. This factor is still open and subject to further discussion.

At present, the Florida Burrowing Owl is being threatened by extensive habitat development throughout their small range in the state. Unfortunately, developers are able to collapse burrowing owl burrows during the non-breeding season and flush the owls from an area. In other areas such as Arizona and British Columbia translocation is being utilized to mitigate the effects of development on burrowing owls. In March 2006, the only translocation of burrowing owls in Florida was conducted by Mosaic Phosphate Company. The purpose of this thesis was to elucidate the effects of translocation on Florida burrowing owls. Topics of research include activity budgets, insect trapping, burrowing owl diet, prey availability, and hatching success for two populations of Florida burrowing owls in Hillsborough and Polk Counties, Florida. Results of this study indicate that translocation has little effect on Florida Burrowing Owl activity budgets. There were significant differences in scanning, time spent in the burrow, and resting between the control and treatment groups (p < 0.05). Though differences in behavior were present between translocated and non-translocated study groups, there was no statistically significant difference (p < 0.025) between the pre-and post translocation study group. Results of the prey availability study indicate that while there are significantly different amounts of arthropods between study areas (p < 0.025), a threshold or satiation point may have been reached at these areas, as trapping results do not match diet results. This satiation point may have been due to cattle dung present at the burrowing owl's breeding areas, which provides a micro-habitat for many prey items. While hatching success was lower for the post translocation group compared to the pre-translocation group, hatching success also was decreased for the control group.This overall decrease indicates that translocation was not the main factor affecting the hatching success of our study groups.

Die derzeit angewendete Formalinbegasung von Bruteiern zur Keimreduktion stellt ein wichtiges Mittel zum Schutz des Verbrauchers vor dem Eintrag der Salmonellose aus der Geflügelindustrie in die Lebensmittelkette dar. Jedoch verlangt sein kanzerogenes Potenzial die Suche nach einer ebenso effektiven und einfach zu praktizierenden, aber weniger gesundheitlich bedenklichen alternativen Methode. In dieser Arbeit wurde die Eignung einer in ovo-Ozonbegasung zur Bruteidesinfektion hinsichtlich ihrer Auswirkung auf die Embryonalentwicklung untersucht. Dafür wurden befruchtete Eier vor ihrem Einsatz in den Brüter mit unterschiedlichen Ozonkonzentrationen zwischen 0,5% bis >5,0% (wt/ wt O3 in O2) bei einer relativen Luftfeuchte von 70% in einer Laborkammer begast. Die verwendeten Ozonkonzentrationen wurden dabei in drei Konzentrationsgruppen eingeteilt: hoch (2,8% bis 5,0%), mittel (1,1% bis 2,5%) und niedrig (0,5% bis 1,0%). Nach Erreichen der Zielkonzentration blieben die Eier für eine definierte Einwirkzeit (EWZ) zwischen 0 bis 24 h in der Kammer. Am Bruttag (BT) 18, 19 oder 20 wurden die Überlebensrate (ÜLR), Gewicht und Länge erhoben sowie histologische Untersuchungen der Organe Herz, Leber, Milz und Niere vorgenommen. Bei vier Versuchen erfolgte zusätzlich die Untersuchung am BT 6 und BT 12. Insgesamt wurden 13 Versuchsreihen mit Begasungen in der Laborkammer in den drei genannten Konzentrationsgruppen durchgeführt. Des Weiteren sollte die Übertragbarkeit der ermittelten Ergebnisse auf eine großtechnische Lösung, durch die Anwendung in einer projektintern entwickelten Prototyp-Kammer überprüft werden. Die Konzipierung dieses Prototyps folgte den technischen Gegebenheiten unter Einbeziehung der ermittelten Ergebnisse zur Embryotoxizität, zur Effektivität der Keimreduktion sowie der Veränderung der Eiinhaltsstoffe. Im Prototyp wurde daher die Begasungskonzentration von 0,7% Ozon bei einer EWZ von 2 h angewendet und in 2 Versuchsreihen hinsichtlich ihrer Auswirkungen auf die Lebensfähigkeit und die morphologische Entwicklung getestet. Um zusätzlich eine Aussage treffen zu können, welche Wirkung eine hohe Ozonkonzentration bei der Applikation während der Bebrütung zur Folge hat, wurde in zwei weiteren Versuchsreihen jeweils am BT 3, 4 und 5 eine Ozondosis von 5,0% in Kombination mit 1 h EWZ appliziert. Nach der Entnahme der Embryonen am BT 6 bzw. BT 8 erfolgte die morphologische Untersuchung. Aus der vorliegenden Arbeit wird zusammenfassend geschlussfolgert:  Ozon besitzt einen dosisabhängigen Effekt auf die ÜLR: je höher die Dosis, desto geringer die Überlebensrate. Bei niedrigen Ozonkonzentrationen zwischen 0,5% und 1,0% kommt es zu ÜLR von 90% und 100%.  Die Einwirkzeit stellt einen wichtigen Einflussfaktor auf die Überlebensrate dar. Eine Kombination einer hohen Ozondosis mit langer EWZ hat eine höhere Embryomortalität zur Folge, als eine hohe Ozondosis ohne EWZ. Eine erhöhte Mortalitätsrate zeigt sich auch bei der Kombination einer mittleren Ozondosis mit einer langen EWZ. Keinen Einfluss zeigt sie bei der Kombination mit einer niedrigen Ozonkonzentration.  Ozonierte Embryonen zeigen dosisabhängig eine geringere Längen- oder Gewichtsentwicklung im Vergleich zur Kontrollgruppe. Signifikante Gewichts- und Längenunterschiede lagen nur vereinzelt bei der Begasung mit hoher Ozonkonzentration vor.  Pathohistologische Befunde an Organen, die mit einer Ozonbegasung in Zusammenhang gebracht werden können, konnten nicht erhoben werden.  Die Versuche zur Begasung während der Organogenese wiesen nicht auf ein teratogenes Potenzial von Ozon hin. Korrespondierend mit den Ergebnissen der Begasung am BT 0 zeigte sich ebenfalls eine deutliche Embryotoxizität.  Die Wirkung von Ozon folgt einem Alles-oder-Nichts-Prinzip: entweder die Schädigung ist so stark, dass es zu keiner Entwicklung mehr kommt, oder aber der überlebende Embryo bzw. Fetus zeigt ein phänotypisch normales Aussehen.  Mit den vorgestellten Untersuchungen konnte bewiesen werden, dass bei einer in ovo-Begasung von befruchteten Hühnereiern am Bruttag 0 mit einer niedrigen Ozonkonzentration von 0,5% bis 1,0% in Kombination mit einer mittleren und geringen EWZ keine teratogenen oder embryotoxischen Veränderungen zu erwarten sind.  Aus diesen Befunden ergibt sich ein unbedenklicher Einsatze von Ozon als alternative Methode zur Bruteidesinfektion. Die Voraussetzung dafür ist, dass die großtechnische Lösung die Anwendung von 1,0% Ozonkonzentration in Kombination mit 2 h EWZ ermöglicht, um eine sehr gute ÜLR, Entwicklung und eine 100%ige Inaktivierung des in Legehennenbeständen vorherrschenden Serovars Salmonella Enteritidis zu gewährleisten.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Alnarp : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2004. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2003--Braunschweig.