Effects of environmental conditions on reproductive effort and nest success of Arctic‐breeding shorebirds

Weiser, Emily L.; Brown, Stephen C.; Lanctot, Richard B.; Gates, H. River; Abraham, Kenneth F.; Bentzen, Rebecca L.; Bêty, Joël; Boldenow, Megan L.; Brook, Rodney W.; Donnelly, Tyrone F.; English, Willow B.; Flemming, Scott A.; Franks, Samantha E.; Gilchrist, H. Grant; Giroux, Marie‐Andrée; Johnson, Andrew C.; Kendall, Steve; Kennedy, Lisa V.; Koloski, Laura; Kwon, Eunbi; Lamarre, Jean‐François; Lank, David B.; Latty, Christopher J.; Lecomte, Nicolas; Liebezeit, Joseph R.; McKinnon, Laura; Nol, Erica; Perz, Johanna; Rausch, Jennie; Robards, Martin D.; Saalfeld, Sarah T.; Senner, Nathan R.; Smith, Paul A.; Soloviev, Mikhail; Solovyeva, Diana; Ward, David H.; Woodard, Paul; Sandercock, Brett K.

doi:10.1111/ibi.12571

Cited by 42 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…This difference may have been caused by tagged birds being less agile in flight and thus more prone to predation by raptors . However, estimated breeding success of the satellite-tracked great knots (60% of 20 birds, defined as a stay of more than 34 days at the breeding site would result in eggs hatching, as reported in Lisovski, Gosbell, Hassell, & Minton, 2016) was very similar to that of Arctic-breeding shorebirds (61% of 7,418 nests of 17 taxa, range = 46%-73%, Weiser et al, 2018), and of great knots tracked with leg-flag mounted geolocators from the same non-breeding area in Northwest Australia (50% of eight birds; Lisovski, Gosbell, Hassell, et al, 2016). Moreover, all the eight geolocator-tracked great knots stopped in Southeast Asia and Southern China during northward migration (though the exact locations and durations of these stops could not be determined at the level of detail as of satellite-tracked birds; Lisovski, Gosbell, Hassell, et al, 2016) and arrival dates at the northern Yellow Sea Number of tags Number of sites accumulated days, n = 19; Mann-Whitney U = 38, p = .25; note that none of the six geolocator-tracked birds stopped in the southern Yellow Sea).…”

Section: Re Sultsmentioning

confidence: 78%

Filling knowledge gaps in a threatened shorebird flyway through satellite tracking

Chan

Tibbitts

Lok

et al. 2019

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Satellite‐based technologies that track individual animal movements enable the mapping of their spatial and temporal patterns of occurrence. This is particularly useful in poorly studied or remote regions where there is a need for the rapid gathering of relevant ecological knowledge to inform management actions. One such region is East Asia, where many intertidal habitats are being degraded at unprecedented rates and shorebird populations relying on these habitats show rapid declines. We examine the utility of satellite tracking to accelerate the identification of coastal sites of conservation importance in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. In 2015–2017, we used solar‐powered satellite transmitters to track the migration of 32 great knots (Calidris tenuirostris), an “Endangered” shorebird species widely distributed in the Flyway and fully dependent on intertidal habitats for foraging during the non‐breeding season. From the great knot tracks, a total of 92 stopping sites along the Flyway were identified. Surprisingly, 63% of these sites were not known as important shorebird sites before our study; in fact, every one of the tracked individuals used sites that were previously unrecognized. Site knowledge from on‐ground studies in the Flyway is most complete for the Yellow Sea and generally lacking for Southeast Asia, Southern China and Eastern Russia. Synthesis and applications. Satellite tracking highlighted coastal habitats that are potentially important for shorebirds but lack ecological information and conservation recognition, such as those in Southern China and Southeast Asia. At the same time, the distributional data of tracked individuals can direct on‐ground surveys at the lesser known sites to collect information on bird numbers and habitat characteristics. To recognize and subsequently protect valuable coastal habitats, filling knowledge gaps by integrating bird tracking with ground‐based methods should be prioritized.

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Section: Re Sultsmentioning

confidence: 78%

Filling knowledge gaps in a threatened shorebird flyway through satellite tracking

Chan

Tibbitts

Lok

et al. 2019

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…, Weiser et al. ). A coordinated monitoring effort with standardized methodology of the ASDN provided a rare opportunity to examine phenological mismatches at a broad geographic scale.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…In addition, we created a separate snow cover data set at a finer resolution of 4‐km for the years from 2010 to 2012 in which the annual timing of snowmelt was defined as the first date when each site was snow‐free to use in our structural equation models (see Structural equation modeling ; Weiser et al. ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We relied on data from the Arctic Shorebird Demographics Network (ASDN) to conduct this study. The ASDN is a research consortium comprised of 16 sites distributed along the Arctic coast of Alaska, Canada, and Russia with the shared objective of understanding why Arctic-breeding shorebirds are declining (Brown et al 2017, Weiser et al 2018. A coordinated monitoring effort with standardized methodology of the ASDN provided a rare opportunity to examine phenological mismatches at a broad geographic scale.…”

Section: Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following the methods of Chen et al (2015), the snowmelt period for each site was then defined as a 30-d window prior to the median SED for a given site from 2001 to 2014. In addition, we created a separate snow cover data set at a finer resolution of 4-km for the years from 2010 to 2012 in which the annual timing of snowmelt was defined as the first date when each site was snow-free to use in our structural equation models (see Structural equation modeling; Weiser et al 2018).…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geographic variation in the intensity of warming and phenological mismatch between Arctic shorebirds and invertebrates

Kwon

Weiser

Lanctot

et al. 2019

Ecological Monographs

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Responses to climate change can vary across functional groups and trophic levels, leading to a temporal decoupling of trophic interactions or “phenological mismatches.” Despite a growing number of single‐species studies that identified phenological mismatches as a nearly universal consequence of climate change, we have a limited understanding of the spatial variation in the intensity of this phenomenon and what influences this variation. In this study, we tested for geographic patterns in phenological mismatches between six species of shorebirds and their invertebrate prey at 10 sites spread across ~13° latitude and ~84° longitude in the Arctic over three years. At each site, we quantified the phenological mismatch between shorebirds and their invertebrate prey at (1) an individual‐nest level, as the difference in days between the seasonal peak in food and the peak demand by chicks, and (2) a population level, as the overlapped area under fitted curves for total daily biomass of invertebrates and dates of the peak demand by chicks. We tested whether the intensity of past climatic change observed at each site corresponded with the extent of phenological mismatch and used structural equation modeling to test for causal relationships among (1) environmental factors, including geographic location and current climatic conditions, (2) the timing of invertebrate emergence and the breeding phenology of shorebirds, and (3) the phenological mismatch between the two trophic levels. The extent of phenological mismatch varied more among different sites than among different species within each site. A greater extent of phenological mismatch at both the individual‐nest and population levels coincided with changes in the timing of snowmelt as well as the potential dissociation of long‐term snow phenology from changes in temperature. The timing of snowmelt also affected the shape of the food and demand curves, which determined the extent of phenological mismatch at the population level. Finally, we found larger mismatches at more easterly longitudes, which may be affecting the population dynamics of shorebirds, as two of our study species show regional population declines in only the eastern part of their range. This suggests that phenological mismatches may be resulting in demographic consequences for Arctic‐nesting birds.

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Horseshoe crab egg availability for shorebirds in Delaware Bay: Dramatic reduction after unregulated horseshoe crab harvest and limited recovery after 20 years of management

Smith¹,

Dey

Williams³

et al. 2022

Aquatic Conservation

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The largest aggregation of spawning American horseshoe crabs in the world occurs in Delaware Bay and supports one of the largest concentrations of shorebirds in the western hemisphere where the birds feed on horseshoe crab eggs during migration. Unregulated harvest in the 1990s is associated with the decline of shorebird populations using the bay, but corresponding baseline information on the horseshoe crab egg food supply that supported peak shorebird populations has been lacking. Past and current measurements of horseshoe crab eggs in the bay indicate that abundance in the 1980s was an order of magnitude greater (x̄ = 156,600/m2) than present‐day estimates (2015–2021 x̄ = 10,243/m2). An additional egg prevalence index, which characterizes the timing and magnitude of horseshoe crab egg output, revealed a similar pattern of higher prevalence in the 1980s (0.89, 95% confidence interval 0.81–0.94) compared with the recent 2015–2021 interval (0.52, 95% confidence interval 0.43–0.60). Declines of egg and shorebird abundance occurred shortly after horseshoe crab harvest reached its peak. Red knot aerial survey counts have stabilized at 30% of the baseline population while ruddy turnstone counts are 40% of baseline estimates. Initially these species were evenly distributed between the New Jersey and Delaware coasts but both species have trended toward predominately occupying New Jersey beaches. A lack of recovery of horseshoe crab egg and shorebird abundance suggests that horseshoe crab harvest management has stabilized populations but progress toward population recovery has been limited. Impacts from bycatch, the pharmaceutical industry and other potential population impacts must be better quantified and mitigated, if necessary, to promote the recovery of horseshoe crab populations. Measurements of horseshoe egg prevalence and abundance are essential metrics for tracking the progress toward management goals for improving shorebird habitat quality.

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Effects of environmental conditions on reproductive effort and nest success of Arctic‐breeding shorebirds

Cited by 42 publications

References 63 publications

Filling knowledge gaps in a threatened shorebird flyway through satellite tracking

Filling knowledge gaps in a threatened shorebird flyway through satellite tracking

Geographic variation in the intensity of warming and phenological mismatch between Arctic shorebirds and invertebrates

Horseshoe crab egg availability for shorebirds in Delaware Bay: Dramatic reduction after unregulated horseshoe crab harvest and limited recovery after 20 years of management

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