Fig. 2: Timeline of the artificial size selection experiment on
free-living house sparrows conducted in parallel on two islands in
Norway starting in year 2002 (1st year). Adult birds
were captured each winter for 4 years and selected for either longer or
shorter tarsus length (each selection event showed with a solid black
arrow). Telomere lengths (TL) were measured on nestling cohorts produced
in the subsequent summer breeding season (showed as dotted grey arrows).
Birds that were not removed during the artificially selection stayed in
their populations, and survival and recruit production were monitored
until all sampled birds were assumed to had died.
Table 1: Number of sampled offspring (n =566) in each
artificial selection category (1: both parents artificially selected;
0.5: one parent subject to artificial selection; 0: no parents
artificially selected, i.e. unselected) from year 2002-2006 in two
island populations selected for larger (high ) and smaller
(low ) tarsus length, respectively. Unknown genetic parents were
assumed not to have been artificially selected.