首页|It is time to mate: population-level plasticity of wild boar reproductive timing and synchrony in a changing environment

It is time to mate: population-level plasticity of wild boar reproductive timing and synchrony in a changing environment

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On a population level, individual plasticity in reproductive phenology can provoke either anticipations or delays in the average reproductive timing in response to environmental changes. However, a rigid reliance on photoperiodism can constraint such plastic responses in popula-tions inhabiting temperate latitudes. The regulation of breeding season length may represent a further tool for populations facing changing environments. Nonetheless, this skill was reported only for equatorial, nonphotoperiodic populations. Our goal was to evaluate whether species living in temperate regions and relying on photoperiodism to trigger their reproduction may also be able to regulate breeding sea-son length. During 10 years, we collected 2,500 female reproductive traits of a mammal model species (wild boar Sus scrofa) and applied a novel analytical approach to reproductive patterns in order to observe population-level variations of reproductive timing and synchrony under different weather and resources availability conditions. Under favorable conditions, breeding seasons were anticipated and popula-tion synchrony increased (i.e., shorter breeding seasons). Conversely, poor conditions induced delayed and less synchronous (i.e., longer) breeding seasons. The potential to regulate breeding season length depending on environmental conditions may entail a high resilience of the population reproductive patterns against environmental changes, as highlighted by the fact that almost all mature females were repro-ductive every year.

breeding season lengthphenologyphotoperiodismpopulation ecologyreproductionwild boar

Rudy Brogi、Enrico Merli、Stefano Grignolio、Roberta Chirichella、Elisa Bottero、Marco Apollonio

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Department of Veterinary Medicine,University of Sassari,via Vienna 2,Sassari I-07100,Italy

Provincial Administration of Arezzo and the Italian Ministry of Education,University and ResearchProvincial Administration of Arezzo and the Italian Ministry of Education,University and ResearchFAR 2020 of the University of Sassari

PRIN 2010-201120108 TZKHC

2022

动物学报(英文版)
中国科学院动物研究所,中国动物学会

动物学报(英文版)

CSCDSCI
影响因子：0.198
ISSN：1674-5507
年,卷(期)：2022.68(4)
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