Bar-tailed Lark (Ammomanes cinctura) Science Article 1
abstract
We compared physiological, demographic, and ecological variables of larksto gain insights into life history variation along an aridity gradient, incorporating phylogeneticrelationships in analyses when appropriate. Quantifying field metabolic rate (FMR)and water influx rate (WIR) of parents feeding nestlings as measures of parental effort, wefound that parental FMR and WIR of larks decreased with increasing aridity. Water andenergy requirements of 6-8 d old nestlings were reduced in desert species. Nestling growthrate, clutch size, and number of clutches decreased with increasing aridity, and nest predation rates increased with increasing aridity.
B. IRENE TIELEMAN, JOSEPH B. WILLIAMS AND G. HENK VISSER, Ecology, 85(5), 2004, pp. 1399-1410