The Relationship between Reproduction and Survival in Known‐Aged California Gulls

Pugesek, Bruce H.; Diem, Kenneth L.

doi:10.2307/1940332

Cited by 84 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…We investigated the changes in trophic ecology (dietary shift) and demographic parameters (population size and survival) of breeding YLGs that were attributable to the two consecutive anthropogenic perturbations. Life-history theory predicts that under limited food access, long-lived organisms will forego reproduction to avoid negatively affecting their future survival (Pugesek andDiem 1990, Oro et al 1999). Thus, we expected that food limitation would trigger a dietary shift and differential resource exploitation, affecting breeding performance (Oro et al 1995, Steigerwald et al 2015 but not individual survival probability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population control of an overabundant species achieved through consecutive anthropogenic perturbations

Payo‐Payo

Oró

Igual

et al. 2015

Ecological Applications

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Abstract. The control of overabundant vertebrates is often problematic. Much work has focused on population-level responses and overabundance due to anthropogenic subsidies. However, far less work has been directed at investigating responses following the removal of subsidies. We investigate the consequences of two consecutive perturbations, the closure of a landfill and an inadvertent poisoning event, on the trophic ecology (d 13 C, d 15 N, and d 34 S), survival, and population size of an overabundant generalist seabird species, the Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis). We expected that the landfill closure would cause a strong dietary shift and the inadvertent poisoning a decrease in gull population size. As a long-lived species, we also anticipated adult survival to be buffered against the decrease in food availability but not against the inadvertent poisoning event. Stable isotope analysis confirmed the dietary shift towards marine resources after the disappearance of the landfill. Although the survival model was inconclusive, it did suggest that the perturbations had a negative effect on survival, which was followed by a recovery back to average values. Food limitation likely triggered dispersal to other populations, while poisoning may have increased mortality; these two processes were likely responsible for the large fall in population size that occurred after the two consecutive perturbations. Life-history theory suggests that perturbations may encourage species to halt existing breeding investment in order to ensure future survival. However, under strong perturbation pulses the resilience threshold might be surpassed and changes in population density can arise. Consecutive perturbations may effectively manage overabundant species.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population control of an overabundant species achieved through consecutive anthropogenic perturbations

Payo‐Payo

Oró

Igual

et al. 2015

Ecological Applications

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“…Most of these studies are cross-sectional in nature and analyse the reproduction of a known-aged cohort in a single year or from a few years of aggregate data. Researchers have interpreted data from these studies as evidence for senescence (Charlesworth, 1980;Mills and Shaw, 1980); however, a recent paper suggests an alternate hypothesis (Pugesek and Diem, 1990). Declines in reproductive performance noted in cross-sectional studies may be due to multiple reproductive strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alternate reproductive strategies in the California gull

Pugesek

Wood

1992

Evol Ecol

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SummaryWe analysed 6 years of reproduction data for 176 California gulls (Larus californicus) surviving from 1980 to 1988. Using a statistical model adapted from Rao's (1958) andTucker's (1966) generalized growth curve analysis, we reconstructed the reproductive patterns of gulls aged from 0 to 26 years. Individuals were highly consistent in following one of two patterns of reproduction. In a primary pattern employed by most gulls, individuals skipped breeding less frequently and laid larger clutches as they aged. Clutch size increased to a plateau and remained at high levels throughout remaining life. In an alternate pattern employed by a smaller subset of the sample, clutch size also increased to a plateau. However, as a result of frequent skipping of breeding and smaller clutches, this plateau was considerably lower compared to that of gulls adopting the primary reproductive pattern. Data on fledging success from 1980 and 1984 were consistent with the finding of two reproductive patterns. Gulls adopting the alternate reproductive pattern produce fewer offspring per breeding attempt but survive longer than gulls adopting the primary pattern. The frequency of gulls employing the alternate pattern will increase with age relative to gulls employing the primary pattern. The alternate pattern, and not senescence, may explain why several cross-sectional studies on seabirds report declines among the oldest breeders in measures of clutch size, egg mass, hatching success, and fledging success.

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“…Only a few studies, however, have tried to correct for compositional change within the population (5, 22, 24, 25, 27, 33-35, 42, 45, 46). Different authors have speculated about the importance of selective disappearance and individual changes, but they have not been able to quantify the contributions (15,18,25,27,28,31,33,35,42,45,(47)(48)(49)(50). Such quantification can be carried out using the approach that we are proposing here.…”

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confidence: 99%

Reproductive improvement and senescence in a long-lived bird

Rebke

Coulson

Becker

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

136

193

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Heterogeneity within a population is a pervasive challenge for studies of individual life-histories. Population-level patterns in agespecific reproductive success can be broken down into relative contributions from selective disappearance, selective appearance of individuals into the study population, and average change in performance for survivors (average ontogenetic development). In this article, we provide an exact decomposition. We apply our formula to data on the reproductive performance of a well characterized population of common terns (Sterna hirundo). We show that improvements with age over most of adult life and senescence at old ages are primarily due to a genuine change in the mean among surviving individuals rather than selective disappearance or selective appearance of individuals. Average ontogenetic development accounts for approximately 87% of the overall age-specific population change.common tern (Sterna hirundo) | age-specific reproduction | aging | heterogeneity | exact decomposition approach I n the study of life-histories it is important to capture the performance of individuals and changes in that performance over age. Changes in performance are often reported as changes in population averages, but individual heterogeneity can produce dynamics at the observed population level that are very different from dynamics at the individual level (1-3)."Population level" refers to the observed averaged information over all individuals present at a given age regardless of whether they survive to the next age step. What we define as population change is the change observed directly in the aggregate field data and not the change in a hypothetical population of all individuals that were present at a given starting age x. "Individual level" refers to the change over age for each surviving individual averaged over all these survivors. We call this term "average ontogenetic development."The interpretation of population-level patterns can be problematic because of "within-generation phenotypic selection" (4). This is a change in the composition of the population if selective mortality removes frail (of lower quality) individuals at an earlier age than those individuals that are less frail (of higher quality) (1, 2), or if individuals that enter the population (here breeding population) as adults later than others through delayed recruitment or immigration (5) have a different performance than the resident population. We use the phrase "selective disappearance" to denote change in the mean of a phenotypic trait due to mortality and "selective appearance" to denote change due to new appearance of individuals. The term "compositional change" is used to refer to the combination of both selective appearance and disappearance. We develop a method to exactly decompose population change in an age-specific phenotypic trait with repeated measures into the components: average ontogenetic development, selective disappearance, and selective appearance.An Approach to Decomposing Population Change. If there is no selecti...

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The Relationship between Reproduction and Survival in Known‐Aged California Gulls

Cited by 84 publications

References 21 publications

Population control of an overabundant species achieved through consecutive anthropogenic perturbations

Population control of an overabundant species achieved through consecutive anthropogenic perturbations

Alternate reproductive strategies in the California gull

Reproductive improvement and senescence in a long-lived bird

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