Abstract
Variability in demographic traits between individuals within populations has profound implications for both evolutionary processes and population dynamics. Parental effects as a source of non-genetic inheritance are important processes to consider to understand the causes of individual variation. In iteroparous species, parental age is known to influence strongly reproductive success and offspring quality, but consequences on an offspring fitness component after independence are much less studied. Based on 37 years longitudinal monitoring of a long-lived seabird, the wandering albatross, we investigate delayed effects of parental age on offspring fitness components. We provide evidence that parental age influences offspring performance beyond the age of independence. By distinguishing maternal and paternal age effects, we demonstrate that paternal age, but not maternal age, impacts negatively post-fledging offspring performance.
Highlights
Heterogeneity in demographic traits within populations has strong implications for both long-term evolutionary processes and actual population dynamics [1]
There is evidence that parental age impacts negatively offspring lifespan, referred to as the Lansing effect [12], the relative effects of parental age on different offspring fitness components remain little documented in wild populations
We found that juvenile survival but not recruitment varied in response to parental age
Summary
Heterogeneity in demographic traits within populations has strong implications for both long-term evolutionary processes and actual population dynamics [1]. We investigated the effects of both paternal and maternal age on the long-term post-fledging offspring performance of the wandering albatross Diomedea exulans.
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