Influence of environmental variability on breeding effort in a long-lived seabird, the yellow-nosed albatross

Weimerskirch, Henri; Zimmermann, Laurent; Prince, P. A.

doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.beheco.a000374

Cited by 96 publications

(114 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Our results confirm those of Chastel et al (1995a, b), Weimerskirch et al (1997Weimerskirch et al ( , 2000Weimerskirch et al ( , 2001, Vleck & Vleck (2002), Takahashi et al (2003), and Clarke et al (2006), that relative body condition affects decision making in avian parents, following the predictions of life history theory: penguins in poorer condition made longer foraging trips, carried less food to young, and gained more mass per foraging trip than those in better condition. While previous researchers have hypothesized that longer foraging trips result in smaller food loads for Adélie penguin chicks (Drent & Daan 1980, Clarke et al 2002, ours is the first study to quantify this effect and the effect of adult body condition on this relationship.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Chaurand & Weimerskirch 1994b, it is important to account for the condition of individual breeding birds in order to best understand measures of parental investment, such as foraging trip duration and food loads obtained. It is also important to consider whether the range of conditions encountered during a study reveals the full range of the animals' foraging strategies when interpreting results (Weimerskirch et al 2001), especially since a flexible investment strategy may be defined by the worst conditions (Ricklefs & Schew 1994, Lescroël et al in press). Such conditions should not occur very often, as otherwise the colony would cease to exist.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If young are inadequately fed, their immediate (pre-departure) or subsequent (post-departure) survival may be at risk, but if parents do not adequately feed themselves, they risk their own survival and residual reproductive success , Golet et al 1998, Weimerskirch et al 2001. For long-lived species, even small reductions in adult survival as a trade-off for elevated breeding effort can have large impacts at the population level (Goodman 1974, Wooller & Coulson 1977.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Foraging strategies of Adélie penguins: adjusting body condition to cope with environmental variability

Ballard¹,

Dugger²,

Nur³

et al. 2010

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Animals modulate breeding effort by balancing investment in self-maintenance against investment in their young, potentially impacting reproductive success when faced with difficult conditions. This life history trade-off model has been evaluated for flying birds, especially those that forage over large pelagic regions of relatively sparse prey availability. We evaluated its applicability to penguins which, lacking flight, depend on reliably available prey relatively close to colonies. We used transponders and an automated weighing system to monitor 40 to 75 breeding Adélie penguins Pygoscelis adeliae per season for 10 seasons, while environmental conditions varied dramatically, measuring foraging trip duration, parental mass change, and total food load delivered to chicks. Parents that lost the most mass during breeding provided more food to chicks while maintaining their own condition. In contrast, in years when adult mass was lower to begin with, parents recovered their own condition and delivered less food to chicks. Food loads were also related to environmental variables, with parents making longer trips and delivering less food when access to prey was more difficult, but delivering more food to 2-chick broods than to 1-chick broods. Penguins did not alternate between short (chick provisioning) and long (self-maintenance) trips, as has been observed in farranging seabirds. Nevertheless, our results indicate they regulated their condition depending on environmental and physiological factors, with impacts on the amount of food delivered to young and pre-fledging mass. Parental choice of multiple foraging habitats and depletion of prey in the nearest habitat due to intraspecific competition have important implications in explaining contrasting patterns observed among studies investigating the life history trade-off model in birds.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Foraging strategies of Adélie penguins: adjusting body condition to cope with environmental variability

Ballard¹,

Dugger²,

Nur³

et al. 2010

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Considering the high costs required to sustain themselves (the high cost of flight, foraging and high metabolic rates), Little Auks might often function near to their maximum performance limits. It has been suggested that the flexibility of time and energy budgets of breeding seabirds allows them to adjust food delivery rates according to offspring energy demands, but only when foraging conditions are favourable (Weimerskirch et al 2001;Litzow and Piatt 2003). For instance, in Common Guillemots, compensation for changes in food quality could occur in a situation in which switching to alternative prey was possible and food quantity was high (Kadin et al 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parent-offspring interactions in a long-lived seabird, the Little Auk (Alle alle): begging and provisioning under simulated stress

2016

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Long-lived seabirds are good models to study the mechanisms that mediate the parent-offspring interactions. Contrary to studies under natural conditions, experimental manipulations allow us to assess the birds' reactions in a short time period. We used the stress hormone corticosterone as an independent experimental factor to simulate the stress reaction, to examine changes in the behaviour of Little Auk chicks and parent birds. In the first experiment, we hypothesised that after enhancement of the corticosterone level Little Auk (Alle alle) chicks intensify their begging performance and attain a higher pre-fledging body mass than the control chicks. In the second experiment, we hypothesized that parent Little Auks with an increased corticosterone level feed their chicks less frequently and spend less time at the colony than their untreated partners and the control birds. We also expected that chicks with one parent implanted with corticosterone fledge later and with a lower body mass than chicks of two untreated parents. The obtained results supported the above hypotheses. We demonstrated that modification of begging performance in Little Auks constitutes an adaptive mechanism that guards against the decrease in the chicks' body condition during stressful periods. Even though the provisioning rate in Little Auks can be regulated according to the chick's needs (expressed by the intensity of the begging display), it appears that adult birds regulate their provisioning strategy primarily according to their body state. The results suggest that parent Little Auks under stressful conditions will decrease their parental effort and redirect the available energy towards self-maintenance. The study provides novel insights into the behaviour of long-lived alcids using an experimental approach on free-living birds.

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“…Weimerskirch et al 2001, Pistorius et al 2004, Ballard et al 2010. Most land breeding marine predators in the subantarctic are income breeders, which means mothers mainly rely on resources obtained during offspring rearing (Boness & Bowen 1996;Boyd 1998) and alternate foraging trips with periods of suckling or feeding offspring (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-seasonal foraging site fidelity of subantarctic fur seals: implications for marine conservation areas

Wege¹,

Tosh²,

Bruyn³

et al. 2016

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Marine top-predators show fidelity to foraging areas with predictable high-quality food patches.Areas of predictable prey yield are of conservation importance and telemetry data aid in identifying such areas. This study examined colony specific and intra-individual foraging site fidelity of lactating Subantarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus tropicalis) from Marion Island (46°54"S, 37°45"E) during summer and winter, comparing commitment to foraging areas across seasons. Thirty-one females were tracked in 2009-2013 resulting in 111 foraging trips for analyses. Inter-annually, preferred foraging areas in summer were consistently ≈200 km due east of Marion Island towards the Gallieni Rise. Summer individuals' core utilization areas overlapped by an estimated 32.84% (CI: 24.53% -41.94%). Seals responded to a decrease in regional productivity in winter by foraging in more distant alternative areas. In winter, individuals changed their travelling direction to north-east of Marion Island and foraged further afield, around the Del Caño Rise and along the South-west Indian Ridge. Despite preferring some foraging areas in winter, there was a low amount of overlap 6.03% (CI 4.02% -9.16%) of individual core utilization areas. The foraging grounds identified in this study have not been included in prior conservation assessments and are important in conserving for this globally 1 significant, and currently declining, population of Subantarctic fur seals and perhaps other toppredators breeding at Marion Island as well. Differences between winter and summer preferred foraging areas highlight the importance of sampling during different seasons when using telemetry data for the identification of potential pelagic conservation areas.

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Influence of environmental variability on breeding effort in a long-lived seabird, the yellow-nosed albatross

Cited by 96 publications

References 54 publications

Foraging strategies of Adélie penguins: adjusting body condition to cope with environmental variability

Foraging strategies of Adélie penguins: adjusting body condition to cope with environmental variability

Parent-offspring interactions in a long-lived seabird, the Little Auk (Alle alle): begging and provisioning under simulated stress

Cross-seasonal foraging site fidelity of subantarctic fur seals: implications for marine conservation areas

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