Senescence in nature: New insights from a long-term seabird study.

In Focus: Tompkins, E. M., & Anderson, D. J. (2019). Sex-specific patterns of senescencein Nazca boobies linked to mating system. Journal of Animal Ecology, 88, 986-1000. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12944. Sex-specific differences in senescence and environmental impacts on senescence in both sexes remain poorly understood. Tompkins and Anderson (2019) studied senescence in survival (hereafter called actuarial senescence) and in reproduction (hereafter called reproductive senescence) in Nazca boobies using 33 years of individual-based capture-recapture data. Senescence patterns (life-history traits, ages at onset, senescence rates) differed between sexes and were affected by environmental conditions (food availability) faced by individuals during their younger ages. Patterns of sex differences in senescence may result from the mating dynamics due to the population's male-biased sex ratio.