The integration and synthesis of the data in different areas of science is drastically slowed and... more The integration and synthesis of the data in different areas of science is drastically slowed and hindered by a lack of standards and networking programmes. Long‐term studies of individually marked animals are not an exception. These studies are especially important as instrumental for understanding evolutionary and ecological processes in the wild. Furthermore, their number and global distribution provides a unique opportunity to assess the generality of patterns and to address broad‐scale global issues (e.g. climate change). To solve data integration issues and enable a new scale of ecological and evolutionary research based on long‐term studies of birds, we have created the SPI‐Birds Network and Database (www.spibirds.org)—a large‐scale initiative that connects data from, and researchers working on, studies of wild populations of individually recognizable (usually ringed) birds. Within year and a half since the establishment, SPI‐Birds has recruited over 120 members, and currentl...
Polymorphic species hold a special attraction due to the ability of their populations to evolve r... more Polymorphic species hold a special attraction due to the ability of their populations to evolve rapidly in re� sponse to stable environmental changes, e.g. climate change. Two remote populations of the pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca), a species with polymorphism in breeding plumage of males, were used in this work. A response of differently colored males to changes in ambient temperature during the period of mate choice was estimated. Males of the pale phenotype rapidly reduced the intensity of advertising behavior in response to cold temperature in both populations of Tomsk and Moscow regions. The activity of bright males remained high within a broad range of ambient temperatures. In the experiments on mate choice, females preferred males with high intensity of advertising behavior: the coloration type per se was not of importance. When tem� peratures fell, females chose bright males because they were tolerant to cold. In the experiments on short� term acclimation of birds fro...
The phenology of many species shows strong sensitivity to climate change; however, with few large... more The phenology of many species shows strong sensitivity to climate change; however, with few large scale intra-specific studies it is unclear how such sensitivity varies over a species’ range. We document large intra-specific variation in phenological sensitivity to temperature using laying date information from 67 populations of two European songbirds covering a large part of their breeding range. Populations inhabiting deciduous habitats showed stronger phenological sensitivity compared with those in evergreen and mixed habitats. Strikingly, however, the lowest sensitivity was seen in populations that had experienced the greatest change in climate. Therefore, we predict that the strongest phenological advancement will not occur in those populations with the highest sensitivity. Our results show that to effectively assess the impact of climate change on phenology across a species range it will be necessary to account for intra-specific variation in phenological sensitivity, climate ...
A major aim of evolutionary biology is to understand why patterns of genomic variation vary among... more A major aim of evolutionary biology is to understand why patterns of genomic variation vary among populations and species. Large-scale genomic studies of widespread species are useful for studying how the environment and demographic history shape patterns of genomic divergence, and with the continually decreasing cost of sequencing, such studies are now becoming feasible. Here, we carry out one of the most comprehensive surveys of genomic variation in a wild vertebrate to date; the great tit (Parus major) HapMap project. We screened ca 500,000 SNP markers across 647 individuals from 28 populations, spanning almost the entire geographic range of the European great tit subspecies. We found that genome-wide variation was consistent with a recent colonisation across Europe from a single refugium in the Balkans and/or Turkey, with bottlenecks and reduced genetic diversity in island populations. Differentiation across the genome was highly heterogeneous, with clear 'islands of differe...
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which... more This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Many organisms adjust their reproductive phenology in response to climate change, but phenologica... more Many organisms adjust their reproductive phenology in response to climate change, but phenological sensitivity to temperature may vary between species. For example, resident and migratory birds have vastly different annual cycles, which can cause differential temperature sensitivity at the breeding grounds, and may affect competitive dynamics. Currently, however, adjustment to climate change in resident and migratory birds have been studied separately or at relatively small geographical scales with varying time series durations and methodologies. Here, we studied differential effects of temperature on resident and migratory birds using the mean egg laying initiation dates from 10 European nest box schemes between 1991 and 2015 that had data on at least one resident tit species and at least one migratory flycatcher species. We found that both tits and flycatchers advanced laying in response to spring warming, but resident tit populations advanced more strongly in relation to temperat...
The majority of our knowledge of avian energetics is based on studies of birds from temperate and... more The majority of our knowledge of avian energetics is based on studies of birds from temperate and high latitudes. Using the largest existing sample of wild-caught Old World tropical species, we showed that birds from Southern Vietnam had lower basal metabolic rate (BMR) than temperate species. The strongest dissimilarity between tropical and temperate species was the low scaling exponent in the allometric relation between BMR and body mass in tropical birds (the regression slope was 0.573). The passerine migrants to temperate and high latitudes had higher BMR than tropical sedentary passerines. Body mass alone accounted for 93% of the variation in BMR (body mass ranged from 5 to 252 g). Contrary to some other studies, we did not find evidence besides the above mentioned that phylogeny, taxonomy, behavior, or ecology have a significant influence on BMR variation among tropical birds.
Consortium (2016). Evolutionary signals of selection on cognition from the great tit genome and m... more Consortium (2016). Evolutionary signals of selection on cognition from the great tit genome and methylome. Nature Communications, 7, [10474].
The Pied Flycatcher population in optimal habitats was investigated in the Zvenigorod biological ... more The Pied Flycatcher population in optimal habitats was investigated in the Zvenigorod biological station of Moscow State University in 1990-1992. A great number of independent parameters was used for microhabitat description of the territories of 147 males. Males with conspicuous plumage appeard to prefer more opened forest patches than pale ones did. According to multiple regression and stepwise selection, the major factors were the size of glade and the density of plant cover (trunks, brunches and bushes) just in front of the nest hole.
[Inter- and intraindividual variation of the breeding plumage ornamentation in male Pied Flycatch... more [Inter- and intraindividual variation of the breeding plumage ornamentation in male Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca from the Moscow province population (55 degrees 44' N 36 degrees 51' E) was studied using long-term data (1996-2005). Eumelanin prevailing colour type (CT) scored according to the seven-step Dorst scale (Dorst, 1936), age, and reproductive status during the current breeding season were analyzed as potential sources of variation of the white ornamentation on the forehead, the wings, and the tail in males. Male CT strongly varied, from almost black to cryptic brownish (2-7, average 4.4, N = 1403). On average CT became I1degree darker with age and tended to be stable after the age of two years. Initial and final CT strongly correlated (r = 0.76). Wing ornamentation and forehead patch (FP) were associated with both initial and final CT, whereas correlation between tail ornamentation and CT was observed only in aged males. Ornamentation was most variable in males...
By the example of young Great tits (Parus major), preferable distance (PD) between pair members w... more By the example of young Great tits (Parus major), preferable distance (PD) between pair members was evaluated by metronome timing method as well as agonistic conflicts were investigated. Heterosexual pairs were formed randomly and placed in personal outdoor aviaries (2X2X2 m, n=80 in total) from early winter till the breeding period. First females started to lay eggs in May. Males tended to draw together with its room-mate more often than females did. Cases of any kinds of direct aggression, such as supplanting attacks, pecks etc, were rather rare and we do not reveal significant correlation between their number and PD value. PD positively correlated to cases of female escape from neutrally approaching male. Symmetrical type of contact, demonstrated the extent of tolerance of male to neutrally approaching female, did not influenced on PD value. Frequency of aggressive conflicts between room-mates at the initial period of their living together did not correlated to their inclination ...
[Estimates of a trait heritability and repeatability can get at an idea of its usefulness for bei... more [Estimates of a trait heritability and repeatability can get at an idea of its usefulness for being an individual characteristic and its ability to change under selection pressure. Heritability and repeatability of energetic parameters still poorly studied in birds. The most important physiological characteristic of homoiotherms is resting metabolic rate (RMR), which, in the absence of productive processes, does not exceed basal metabolic rate (BMR). We estimated BMR repeatability in free-living pied fl ycatchers in Moscow Region (55°44' N, 36°51' E; 1992–2008) and Tomsk (56°20' N, 84°56' E; 2008–2009) populations over intervals from 40 days to 3 years. In Moscow Region population, BMR repeatability amounted to τ = 0.34±0.10 (n = 80) if measured over 1 year interval, τ = 0.60±0.15 (n = 19) if measured over 2 years interval, and τ = 0.85±0.13 (n = 6) if measured over 3 years interval providing that consecutive BMR measurements were done in the same period of reproduct...
The integration and synthesis of the data in different areas of science is drastically slowed and... more The integration and synthesis of the data in different areas of science is drastically slowed and hindered by a lack of standards and networking programmes. Long‐term studies of individually marked animals are not an exception. These studies are especially important as instrumental for understanding evolutionary and ecological processes in the wild. Furthermore, their number and global distribution provides a unique opportunity to assess the generality of patterns and to address broad‐scale global issues (e.g. climate change). To solve data integration issues and enable a new scale of ecological and evolutionary research based on long‐term studies of birds, we have created the SPI‐Birds Network and Database (www.spibirds.org)—a large‐scale initiative that connects data from, and researchers working on, studies of wild populations of individually recognizable (usually ringed) birds. Within year and a half since the establishment, SPI‐Birds has recruited over 120 members, and currentl...
Polymorphic species hold a special attraction due to the ability of their populations to evolve r... more Polymorphic species hold a special attraction due to the ability of their populations to evolve rapidly in re� sponse to stable environmental changes, e.g. climate change. Two remote populations of the pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca), a species with polymorphism in breeding plumage of males, were used in this work. A response of differently colored males to changes in ambient temperature during the period of mate choice was estimated. Males of the pale phenotype rapidly reduced the intensity of advertising behavior in response to cold temperature in both populations of Tomsk and Moscow regions. The activity of bright males remained high within a broad range of ambient temperatures. In the experiments on mate choice, females preferred males with high intensity of advertising behavior: the coloration type per se was not of importance. When tem� peratures fell, females chose bright males because they were tolerant to cold. In the experiments on short� term acclimation of birds fro...
The phenology of many species shows strong sensitivity to climate change; however, with few large... more The phenology of many species shows strong sensitivity to climate change; however, with few large scale intra-specific studies it is unclear how such sensitivity varies over a species’ range. We document large intra-specific variation in phenological sensitivity to temperature using laying date information from 67 populations of two European songbirds covering a large part of their breeding range. Populations inhabiting deciduous habitats showed stronger phenological sensitivity compared with those in evergreen and mixed habitats. Strikingly, however, the lowest sensitivity was seen in populations that had experienced the greatest change in climate. Therefore, we predict that the strongest phenological advancement will not occur in those populations with the highest sensitivity. Our results show that to effectively assess the impact of climate change on phenology across a species range it will be necessary to account for intra-specific variation in phenological sensitivity, climate ...
A major aim of evolutionary biology is to understand why patterns of genomic variation vary among... more A major aim of evolutionary biology is to understand why patterns of genomic variation vary among populations and species. Large-scale genomic studies of widespread species are useful for studying how the environment and demographic history shape patterns of genomic divergence, and with the continually decreasing cost of sequencing, such studies are now becoming feasible. Here, we carry out one of the most comprehensive surveys of genomic variation in a wild vertebrate to date; the great tit (Parus major) HapMap project. We screened ca 500,000 SNP markers across 647 individuals from 28 populations, spanning almost the entire geographic range of the European great tit subspecies. We found that genome-wide variation was consistent with a recent colonisation across Europe from a single refugium in the Balkans and/or Turkey, with bottlenecks and reduced genetic diversity in island populations. Differentiation across the genome was highly heterogeneous, with clear 'islands of differe...
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which... more This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Many organisms adjust their reproductive phenology in response to climate change, but phenologica... more Many organisms adjust their reproductive phenology in response to climate change, but phenological sensitivity to temperature may vary between species. For example, resident and migratory birds have vastly different annual cycles, which can cause differential temperature sensitivity at the breeding grounds, and may affect competitive dynamics. Currently, however, adjustment to climate change in resident and migratory birds have been studied separately or at relatively small geographical scales with varying time series durations and methodologies. Here, we studied differential effects of temperature on resident and migratory birds using the mean egg laying initiation dates from 10 European nest box schemes between 1991 and 2015 that had data on at least one resident tit species and at least one migratory flycatcher species. We found that both tits and flycatchers advanced laying in response to spring warming, but resident tit populations advanced more strongly in relation to temperat...
The majority of our knowledge of avian energetics is based on studies of birds from temperate and... more The majority of our knowledge of avian energetics is based on studies of birds from temperate and high latitudes. Using the largest existing sample of wild-caught Old World tropical species, we showed that birds from Southern Vietnam had lower basal metabolic rate (BMR) than temperate species. The strongest dissimilarity between tropical and temperate species was the low scaling exponent in the allometric relation between BMR and body mass in tropical birds (the regression slope was 0.573). The passerine migrants to temperate and high latitudes had higher BMR than tropical sedentary passerines. Body mass alone accounted for 93% of the variation in BMR (body mass ranged from 5 to 252 g). Contrary to some other studies, we did not find evidence besides the above mentioned that phylogeny, taxonomy, behavior, or ecology have a significant influence on BMR variation among tropical birds.
Consortium (2016). Evolutionary signals of selection on cognition from the great tit genome and m... more Consortium (2016). Evolutionary signals of selection on cognition from the great tit genome and methylome. Nature Communications, 7, [10474].
The Pied Flycatcher population in optimal habitats was investigated in the Zvenigorod biological ... more The Pied Flycatcher population in optimal habitats was investigated in the Zvenigorod biological station of Moscow State University in 1990-1992. A great number of independent parameters was used for microhabitat description of the territories of 147 males. Males with conspicuous plumage appeard to prefer more opened forest patches than pale ones did. According to multiple regression and stepwise selection, the major factors were the size of glade and the density of plant cover (trunks, brunches and bushes) just in front of the nest hole.
[Inter- and intraindividual variation of the breeding plumage ornamentation in male Pied Flycatch... more [Inter- and intraindividual variation of the breeding plumage ornamentation in male Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca from the Moscow province population (55 degrees 44' N 36 degrees 51' E) was studied using long-term data (1996-2005). Eumelanin prevailing colour type (CT) scored according to the seven-step Dorst scale (Dorst, 1936), age, and reproductive status during the current breeding season were analyzed as potential sources of variation of the white ornamentation on the forehead, the wings, and the tail in males. Male CT strongly varied, from almost black to cryptic brownish (2-7, average 4.4, N = 1403). On average CT became I1degree darker with age and tended to be stable after the age of two years. Initial and final CT strongly correlated (r = 0.76). Wing ornamentation and forehead patch (FP) were associated with both initial and final CT, whereas correlation between tail ornamentation and CT was observed only in aged males. Ornamentation was most variable in males...
By the example of young Great tits (Parus major), preferable distance (PD) between pair members w... more By the example of young Great tits (Parus major), preferable distance (PD) between pair members was evaluated by metronome timing method as well as agonistic conflicts were investigated. Heterosexual pairs were formed randomly and placed in personal outdoor aviaries (2X2X2 m, n=80 in total) from early winter till the breeding period. First females started to lay eggs in May. Males tended to draw together with its room-mate more often than females did. Cases of any kinds of direct aggression, such as supplanting attacks, pecks etc, were rather rare and we do not reveal significant correlation between their number and PD value. PD positively correlated to cases of female escape from neutrally approaching male. Symmetrical type of contact, demonstrated the extent of tolerance of male to neutrally approaching female, did not influenced on PD value. Frequency of aggressive conflicts between room-mates at the initial period of their living together did not correlated to their inclination ...
[Estimates of a trait heritability and repeatability can get at an idea of its usefulness for bei... more [Estimates of a trait heritability and repeatability can get at an idea of its usefulness for being an individual characteristic and its ability to change under selection pressure. Heritability and repeatability of energetic parameters still poorly studied in birds. The most important physiological characteristic of homoiotherms is resting metabolic rate (RMR), which, in the absence of productive processes, does not exceed basal metabolic rate (BMR). We estimated BMR repeatability in free-living pied fl ycatchers in Moscow Region (55°44' N, 36°51' E; 1992–2008) and Tomsk (56°20' N, 84°56' E; 2008–2009) populations over intervals from 40 days to 3 years. In Moscow Region population, BMR repeatability amounted to τ = 0.34±0.10 (n = 80) if measured over 1 year interval, τ = 0.60±0.15 (n = 19) if measured over 2 years interval, and τ = 0.85±0.13 (n = 6) if measured over 3 years interval providing that consecutive BMR measurements were done in the same period of reproduct...
Uploads
Papers by A. Kerimov