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Article Dans Une Revue Landscape and Urban Planning Année : 2017

Growing in a city: Consequences on body size and plumage quality in an urban dweller, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus).

Résumé

In urban environments, wild vertebrates have to adjust to new environmental challenges (e.g., modifiedresource availability, increased chemical, noise and light pollutions). However, while the pace of urbanizationis constantly increasing, little is known about the ultimate consequences of urban life on thecondition of free-living organisms during different life-history stages. In this study, we investigated theinfluence of urbanization on the condition and non-ornamental feather quality in a common wild birdspecies, the House sparrow (Passer domesticus). Using a national network of trained ringers, almost 600juvenile (early post-fledging) and adult sparrows were captured at 30 sites that differ in urbanizationrates. To specifically test whether urbanization differentially affect individuals during different parts ofthe life cycle, we used several proxies for the energetic and nutritional conditions experienced during(1) the developmental period (body size, juvenile feather quality), (2) at the time of capture (body condition),or (3) during the molting period (adult feather quality). Using this methodology, we showed for thefirst time that urbanization is associated with both reduced body size and feather quality in this urbandwellerspecies across a large geographical scale. Importantly, only tarsus length and juvenile plumagequality, both determined during development in the nest, were affected by the degree of urbanization.Conversely, body condition and plumage quality did not differ along the urbanization gradient in adults.Our results thus suggest that urban house sparrows could suffer from nutritional deficit during theirdevelopment while such constraints disappear once the chicks have completed their growth.
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Dates et versions

hal-01444703 , version 1 (24-01-2017)

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Alizée Meillere, François Brischoux, Pierre-Yves Henry, Bruno Michaud, Roger Garcin, et al.. Growing in a city: Consequences on body size and plumage quality in an urban dweller, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus).. Landscape and Urban Planning, 2017, 160, pp.127-138. ⟨10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.12.014⟩. ⟨hal-01444703⟩
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