The effects of food abundance on breeding performance and adult time budgets of Guillemots <i>Uria aalge</i>

Uttley, J. D.; Walton, Paul; Monaghan, Pat; Austin, Graham E.

doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.1994.tb01086.x

Cited by 117 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Seabirds typically adjust activity budgets with respect to prey availability (Burger & Piatt 1990, Uttley et al 1994, Zador & Piatt 1999, and the present study provides evidence that marbled murrelets do so as well. Murrelets foraged most intensively early in the 2005 season when prey was least abundant and more dispersed.…”

Section: Threshold and Timing Effects Of Preysupporting

confidence: 66%

“…Flexibility in foraging behaviour has been demonstrated widely in seabirds, and in particular piscivorous alcids (Alcidae), that adjust their activity budgets, spending more time foraging in years when foraging conditions are poor (Burger & Piatt 1990, Uttley et al 1994, Litzow & Piatt 2003. Behavioural responses to prey may be observed much earlier than physiological or reproductive responses ), yet despite the apparent flexibility of activity budgets for many seabirds, thresholds may exist whereby foraging flexibility can no longer buffer reproductive success against very low food availability (Dall & Boyd 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, establishing clear linkages between predators and prey can have important implications for monitoring fish populations by using seabirds as indicators (Cairns 1987. Though many studies have linked seabird foraging behaviour to prey availability (Burger & Piatt 1990, Uttley et al 1994, Litzow & Piatt 2003, few integrative studies exist combining oceanography, prey availability, and breeding success in relation to foraging ecology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Limited foraging flexibility: increased foraging effort by a marine predator does not buffer against scarce prey

Ronconi¹,

Burger²

2008

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Flexibility in activity time budgets allows animals to cope with heterogeneous and changing environments. Many marine predators, such as seabirds, exhibit flexibility in their foraging behaviour to buffer reproductive success against periods of low prey availability. Over 3 years, 2004 to 2006, we studied the foraging behaviour of a threatened seabird, the marbled murrelet Brachyramphus marmoratus in southwestern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. An information-theoretic approach was used to compare among factors (temporal, spatial, environmental, and competitors) that may influence diving activity. We also quantified local prey availability by hydroacoustic surveys and regional oceanographic conditions (chlorophyll a concentrations and upwelling indices) to investigate relationships between diving activity, food supply and environmental conditions. Prey indices varied spatially, seasonally, and annually, showing reduced prey availability during incubation and chick-rearing of 2005. Upwelling indices and chlorophyll a concentrations, as an index of primary productivity, were delayed in 2005. Year and breeding phase had the greatest impact on diving activity, with additional variation among sites. Murrelets increased diving activity in years and seasons with scarce prey and poor oceanographic conditions (incubation and chick-rearing 2005) and decreased diving activity at sites with high prey availability. There was a linear relationship between diving activity and food availability, suggesting no clear thresholds in response to decreases in prey. Despite their flexible activity budgets, increased foraging effort by murrelets in 2005 was inadequate to ensure average levels of reproductive success. Thus, flexible foraging behaviour by murrelets may be ineffective to buffer reproductive success when environmental conditions are extremely poor. KEY WORDS: Activity budgets · Prey availability · Foraging ecology · Thresholds · Seabirds · Brachyramphus marmoratusResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher

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Section: Threshold and Timing Effects Of Preysupporting

confidence: 66%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Limited foraging flexibility: increased foraging effort by a marine predator does not buffer against scarce prey

Ronconi¹,

Burger²

2008

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…This last result indicates that the food availability around SG may be scarce, which agrees with previous studies that reported lower feeding frequencies (Granadeiro et al 1998b) and longer foraging trips at this colony (Catry et al 2009;Paiva et al 2010b), when compared to BE. Indeed, the length of foraging trips is known to be largely influenced by the local food availability (Uttley et al 1994) and by the distance to the most profitable areas (Paiva et al 2010c). Moreover, as the number of breeding shearwaters at SG is much larger than at BE (Granadeiro et al 2006;Lecoq et al 2011), intraspecific competition could also lead to differences in the foraging strategies between colonies (Lewis et al 2001;Grémillet et al 2004).…”

Section: Foraging Strategy and Chick Conditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parent–offspring dietary segregation of Cory’s shearwaters breeding in contrasting environments

et al. 2012

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In pelagic seabirds, who often explore distant food resources, information is usually scarce on the level of trophic segregation between parents and their offspring. To investigate this issue, we used GPS tracking, stable isotopes and dietary information of Cory's shearwaters Calonectris diomedea breeding in contrasting environments. Foraging trips at Selvagem Grande (an oceanic island) mainly targeted the distant African coast, while at Berlenga island (located on the continental shelf), shearwaters foraged mainly over nearby shelf waters. The degree of isotopic segregation between adults and chicks, based on d 13 C, differed markedly between the two sites, indicating that adult birds at Selvagem fed their chicks with a mixture of shelf and offshore pelagic prey but assimilated more prey captured on coastal shelf waters. Isotopic differences between age classes at Berlenga were much smaller and may have resulted from limited dietary segregation or from age-related metabolic differences. The diet of shearwaters was also very different between the two colonies, with offshore pelagic prey only being detected at Selvagem Grande. Our findings suggest that spatial foraging constraints influence resource partitioning between pelagic seabirds and their offspring and can lead to a parent-offspring dietary segregation.

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“…Thus our predictions were met because prey were more abundant in urban habitats as expected (Blair 1996;Tratalos et al 2007), and it is well known that food abundance is typically the major driver of breeding performance among birds in particular (e.g. Martin 1987;Uttley et al 1994;Perrig et al 2014;Pollock et al 2017) and animals in general (e.g. Korpimäki et al 1991;Wauter and Lens 1995;Heesen et al 2013) Our results agree with another more detailed study based on a single urban raptor population in South Africa, which concluded that the stability of prey in urban environments is sufficient to maintain healthy offspring of another top avian predator (Suri et al 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Breeding performance of an apex predator, the peregrine falcon, across urban and rural landscapes

et al. 2018

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Urban environments present wildlife with major challenges and yet surprising numbers of species have colonised towns and cities globally. Despite the growing realisation that urban centres can be important habitats for wildlife, why some species do better than others in urban environments remains poorly understood. Here, we compare the breeding performance of an apex predator, the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), in urban and rural environments, and test whether variation in reproductive success between and within environments is driven by prey. Historical breeding data were collected from raptor study groups across Great Britain between 2006 and 2016, from 22 urban and 58 rural nest sites, involving 101 and 326 nesting attempts, respectively. Prey density, biomass and diversity around the individual nests was estimated using modelled estimates from a national bird census. Urban peregrines produced more fledglings and had a higher overall nesting success (i.e. whether a nesting attempt was successful or unsuccessful) than rural peregrines. Prey density and biomass were significantly higher, and diversity significantly lower, in the urban sites, and explained the variation in reproductive success within both the urban and rural environments. Therefore, urban environments in Great Britain appear to provide peregrine falcons with superior habitats in terms of prey availability compared to rural habitats. We conclude that some apex predators can benefit from urban environments and that urban planning has the potential to benefit biodiversity across many trophic levels.

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The effects of food abundance on breeding performance and adult time budgets of Guillemots Uria aalge

Cited by 117 publications

References 27 publications

Limited foraging flexibility: increased foraging effort by a marine predator does not buffer against scarce prey

Limited foraging flexibility: increased foraging effort by a marine predator does not buffer against scarce prey

Parent–offspring dietary segregation of Cory’s shearwaters breeding in contrasting environments

Breeding performance of an apex predator, the peregrine falcon, across urban and rural landscapes

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