Causes and consequences of divorce in a long-lived socially monogamous bird

Speelman, Frigg J. D., Burke, Terry, Komdeur, Jan, Richardson, David S. and Dugdale, Hannah L. (2024) Causes and consequences of divorce in a long-lived socially monogamous bird. Ecology Letters, 27 (12). ISSN 1461-023X

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Abstract

In socially monogamous species, sexual selection not only depends on initial mate choice but also mate switching. To date, studies lack assessment of (1) differences between passive (widowhood) and active (divorce) mate switching, (2) longer term fitness consequences (beyond the season post-divorce) and (3) how age masks reproductive costs and benefits of divorce. We investigated causes and short- and long-term consequences of mate switching and their age dependence using longitudinal data on Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis). Young and old males, but not females, divorced most frequently. Divorce propensity declined with pair-bond duration and reproductive success in both sexes, but mate switching did not incur short-term costs. Divorcees did not gain short- or long-term fitness benefits compared to non-divorcees. Rather, female early-life divorcees that lost their breeding position had lower survival than females that never divorced. Divorce is likely a strategy to escape poor-quality partnerships, but not all divorcees benefit from divorcing.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	PEER REVIEW: The peer review history for this article is available at https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway/wos/peer-review/10.1111/ele.14471. DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT: Data and code are available on Figshare: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25033811.v1. FUNDING INFORMATION: The long-term data gathering that enabled this study was supported by various NERC grants: NE/B504106/1 to TAB and DSR, NE/I021748/1 to HLD, NE/P011284/1 to HLD and DSR, and NE/F02083X/1, NE/K005502/1 and NE/S010939/1 to DSR; as well as a NWO Rubicon 825.09.013 to HLD, NWO visitors grant 040.11.232 to JK and HLD and NWO TOP grant 854.11.003 and NWO VICI 823.01.014 to JK.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	acrocephalus sechellensis,age,mate fidelity,mate switching,partnerships,reproductive success,sex specific,seychelles warbler,social monogamy,widowing,ecology, evolution, behavior and systematics ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1100/1105
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	11 Feb 2025 10:30
Last Modified:	01 Apr 2025 00:22
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98446
DOI:	10.1111/ele.14471

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