Sex-Differences in Phenology: A Tinbergian Perspective

Area of Science:

• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Climate Change Biology
• Phenology Research

Background:

• Climate change is altering the timing of seasonal life-history events, causing phenological mismatches.
• Differential sensitivity to environmental cues between sexes can lead to mismatches within species.
• Sex-specific energy allocation for reproduction results in distinct life-history timing patterns.

Approach:

• Review examines sex-differences in vertebrate phenology from adaptive, ontogenetic, mechanistic, and phylogenetic perspectives (Tinbergian framework).
• Investigates how sexual and natural selection drive sex-differences in life-history timing.
• Considers the influence of ontogeny and early-life environment on sex-specific phenological timing.

Key Points:

• Understanding sex-differences in phenology is crucial for assessing population resilience to climate change.
• Molecular mechanisms underlying phenological timing are increasingly understood but often studied in a single sex.
• Phylogenetic analyses and new sequencing tools can illuminate the evolution and mechanisms of sex-specific phenology.

Conclusions:

• Integrative research on sexually dimorphic phenologies is needed.
• Greater attention should be given to sex-differences in timing mechanisms and climate change responses in both sexes.
• New tools offer promise for understanding sex-differences in phenology across multiple levels of biological organization.