Thermal Environment of the Nest and Related Parental Behavior in Snowy Plovers, Charadrius alexandrinus

Purdue, James R.

doi:10.2307/1366853

Cited by 40 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The reduction in nest attendance during 16:00-18:00 h) may be because this period is suitable for peak foraging activities (Purdue, 1976), and the ambient temperature lay within the optimum for the growth of embryos. However, temperatures of the morning period (10:00-12:00 h) may reach 45 °C, which exceeds the optimum (Webb, 1987;Downs and Ward, 1997;Conway and Martin, 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incubation Routine of Saunders's Tern Sternula Saundersi in a Harsh Environment

AlRashidi

Shobrak

2015

Avian Biology Research

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Saunders's Tern (Sternula saundersi) is a small ground-nesting seabird which breeds in the coasts and islands of Africa and Asia bordering the northern Indian Ocean. Despite having a wide distribution, little information is available on the breeding biology of this species. This study was carried out on Farasan Islands, Saudi Arabia, to document some aspects of the breeding biology of this species using a small trail camera. Such camera systems can reveal the incubation routine of this species in such a harsh environment. The midday ground temperature in March may reach up to 50 °C, while the midnight ground temperature may only reach 20 °C, thus leaving the eggs unattended even for few minutes, especially during the hottest and coldest parts of the day, may cause nest failure. This huge variation in ground temperatures between day and night gave us an excellent opportunity to test the behavioural mechanism used by the parents for maintaining the optimal egg temperature so as to protect their eggs. We found that nest attendance increases when the temperatures deviated from the optimal egg temperature, and nests were incubated for more than 90% of the time during the hottest and coldest parts of the day to prevent eggs from harmful temperatures.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incubation Routine of Saunders's Tern Sternula Saundersi in a Harsh Environment

AlRashidi

Shobrak

2015

Avian Biology Research

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“…Nests are sparsely filled with material such as straw, pebbles, mollusc shells and algae which may act as insulation materials to help regulate egg temperature [32,35]. Both parents participate in incubation: females usually incubate in the daytime whereas males incubate during night [36,37], although after hatching of the eggs one parent (usually the female) may desert the brood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of a hot environment on parental cooperation of a ground-nesting shorebird, the Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus

et al. 2010

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BackgroundParental care often increases offspring survival, but is costly to the parents. A trade-off between the cost and benefit of care is expected, so that when care provisioning by both parents is essential for the success of young, for instance in extremely cold or hot environments, the parents should rear their young together. We investigated the latter hypothesis in a ground nesting shorebird, the Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus in an extremely hot environment, the Arabian Desert. Midday ground temperature was often above 50°C in our study site in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), thus leaving the eggs unattended even for a few minute risks overheating and death of embryos.ResultsThrough the use of video surveillance systems we recorded incubation routines of male and female Kentish plovers at 28 nests over a full day (24 h). We show that ambient temperature had a significant influence on incubation behaviour of both sexes, and the relationships are often non-linear. Coordinated incubation between parents was particularly strong in midday with incubation shared approximately equally between the male and the female. The enhanced biparental incubation was due to males increasing their nest attendance with ambient temperature.ConclusionsOur results suggest biparental care is essential during incubation in the Kentish plover in extremely hot environments. Shared incubation may also help the parents to cope with heat stress themselves: they can relieve each other frequently from incubation duties. We suggest that once the eggs have hatched the risks associated with hot temperature are reduced: the chicks become mobile, and they gradually develop thermoregulation. When biparental care of young is no longer essential one parent may desert the family. The relaxed demand of the offspring may contribute to the diverse breeding systems exhibited by many shorebirds.

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“…Apart from an anecdotal note (Gregory-Smith 1998) and general distribution information (Collar et al 1999;Smythies and Davison 1999;Robson 2002), there are few detailed, published studies on this species (Yasué and Dearden 2006a, b, c). The Malaysian plover is an ideal species to explore some of the possible differences between parental roles in temperate and tropical areas, because there are several well-studied temperate populations of closely related species such as the common ringed plover (Charadrius hiaticula), and temperate populations of Kentish plovers (Charadrius alexandrinus) (Purdue 1976;Fraga and Amat 1996;Wallander 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental sex roles of Malaysian plovers during territory acquisition, incubation and chick-rearing

Yasué

Dearden

2007

J Ethol

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Shorebirds show high variability in parental care strategies among species, populations, and environments. Research on shorebird parental sex roles can help to understand the selective pressures that shape avian breeding strategies. Although several studies have examined parental care strategies in holarctic shorebirds, very little research has been conducted in the tropics. Here we examined parental sex roles during territorial defence, incubation, and chickrearing in Malaysian plovers Charadrius peronii in the Gulf of Thailand. The costs and gains of particular parental behaviour may vary between the sexes and can be affected differently by environmental factors and chick age. Thus we also examined how temperature, prey availability, chick or embryo age, and time of day affected parental sex roles. Males spent more time defending territories and were further away from chicks whereas females spent more time incubating eggs. Both adults contributed to chick defence during disturbances throughout the entire chick-rearing period. Total nest attendance (sum of both sexes) was affected by the modelled temperature of an unincubated egg. Prey availability, embryo age, and time of day had no effect on total nest attendance. Males adjusted incubation effort in response to temperature only at high temperatures (>36°C) whereas females adjusted nest attendance at high and low temperatures. Chick age had no effect on the proportion of time adults spent defending territories or responding to disturbance. Pairs were more likely to fledge chicks if both the male and female spent more time defending territories. For Malaysian plovers, high cooperation between the sexes during parental care may help to achieve high quality breeding territories, maintain body conditions during hot days, protect offspring from predators and attacking conspecifics, and contribute to high lifetime reproductive success.

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Thermal Environment of the Nest and Related Parental Behavior in Snowy Plovers, Charadrius alexandrinus

Cited by 40 publications

References 4 publications

Incubation Routine of Saunders's Tern Sternula Saundersi in a Harsh Environment

Incubation Routine of Saunders's Tern Sternula Saundersi in a Harsh Environment

The influence of a hot environment on parental cooperation of a ground-nesting shorebird, the Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus

Parental sex roles of Malaysian plovers during territory acquisition, incubation and chick-rearing

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