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Does female nuptial coloration reflect egg carotenoids and clutch quality in the Two-Spotted Goby (Gobiusculus flavescens, Gobiidae)? Svensson, P. A., Pélabon, C., Blount, J. D., Surai, P. F. and Amundsen, T. 2006, Does female nuptial coloration reflect egg carotenoids and clutch quality in the Two-Spotted Goby (Gobiusculus flavescens, Gobiidae)?, Functional ecology, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 689-698. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads Title Does female nuptial coloration reflect egg carotenoids and clutch quality in the Two-Spotted Goby (Gobiusculus flavescens, Gobiidae)? Author(s) Svensson, P. A. Pélabon, C. Blount, J. D. Surai, P. F. Amundsen, T. Journal name Functional ecology Volume number 20 Issue number 4 Start page 689 End page 698 Publisher Wiley - Blackwell Publishing Place of publication Oxford, U. K. Publication date 2006-08 ISSN 0269-8463 1365-2435 Keyword(s) clutch size female ornament fish hatching success larval survival Summary Summary 1 - Carotenoid-based ornamentation has often been suggested to signal mate quality, and species with such ornaments have frequently been used in studies of sexual selection. 2 - Female Gobiusculus flavescens (Two-Spotted Goby) develop colourful orange bellies during the breeding season. Belly coloration varies among mature females, and previous work has shown that nest-holding males prefer females with more colourful bellies. Because males invest heavily in offspring during incubation, the evolution of this preference can be explained if colourful females provide males with eggs of higher quality. 3 - We tested this hypothesis by allowing males to spawn with ‘colourful’ and ‘drab’ females and comparing parameters including egg carotenoid concentration, clutch size, hatchability and larval viability between groups. We also investigated relationships between egg carotenoid concentration and clutch quality parameters. 4 - Eggs from colourful females had significantly higher concentrations of total carotenoids than drab females, and photographically quantified belly coloration was a good predictor of egg carotenoid concentration. 5 - Colourful females produced slightly larger clutches, but female belly coloration was not related to any measure of clutch quality. In addition, there were no significant relationships between egg carotenoids and clutch quality. Females with high levels of egg carotenoids spawned slightly earlier, however, possibly because they were more ready to spawn or because of male mate choice. 6 - Our results call into question the generality of a causal link between egg carotenoids and offspring quality. Language eng Field of Research 060201 Behavioural Ecology 060603 Animal Physiology - Systems Socio Economic Objective 970105 Expanding Knowledge in the Environmental Sciences HERDC Research category C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Copyright notice ©2006, The Authors Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30038904 Document type: Journal Article Collection: School of Life and Environmental Sciences Related Links Link Description Connect to published version (restricted access) Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Thu, 20 Oct 2011, 15:12:25 EST Thu, 20 Oct 2011, 15:22:56 EST Thu, 01 Mar 2012, 08:00:50 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 29 times in TR Web of Science Cited 31 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 32 Abstract Views, 1 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Thu, 20 Oct 2011, 15:12:24 EST by Joshua Walker

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