Does parental age affect offspring performance through differences in egg quality?

Abstract

1. Poorer performance in young compared with older age classes is common among iteroparous animals, and may result from age effects acting on different phases of reproduction. However, such effects have generally not been teased apart, and as a result their separate consequences for offspring fitness have remained unclear. 2. We tested whether young and mature Herring Gulls produce offspring of different quality due to differences in their egg-production capacity. An experimental protocol was used to standardize incubation and rearing conditions. 3. Eggs laid by young females were smaller than eggs of mature birds. They had a reduced absolute amount of albumen, which reflected mainly lower water content. 4. Within the young age class, female eggs were smaller than male eggs and had significantly paler yolk. This was due to young birds having reduced water content of the albumen, as well as carotenoid content in eggs containing a female embryo. In the mature class there were no such differences in resource allocation in relation to embryo sex. The sex ratio of clutches did not vary with parental age. 5. Hatchlings from eggs produced by young pairs were smaller skeletally but had similar mass to hatchlings from eggs laid by mature birds. When reared by mature foster parents, they did not differ in structural growth or survival. However, they showed a different pattern of growth in body mass. 6. Our results suggest that poorer reproductive performance of young breeders is not simply a consequence of poorer egg quality, as this was largely compensated for when the eggs of young pairs were incubated and reared by mature foster parents. However, it is also possible that adverse effects of lower egg quality are not manifest in the offspring until later in life. © 2006 British Ecological Society.