Heritability of head size in the common gull Larus canus in relation to environmental conditions during offspring growth

Abstract

We studied the heritability of head length in a common gull (Larus canus) population breeding in western Estonia. Heritability estimates obtained from offspring-parent regressions were moderate to high and significantly different from zero. Head size might hence respond evolutionarily to phenotypic selection. Offspring-mother and offspring-father regressions yielded similar heritability estimates. This indicated that size-related maternal or paternal effects were absent or weak. Heritability and additive genetic variance estimates obtained from offspring-parent regressions and full-sib analyses were higher when offspring had grown up under good environmental conditions than under poor environmental conditions. Such a pattern has previously been found in some other studies of birds. This suggests that genotype-environment interactions might be frequent within the range of conditions experienced by natural bird populations.