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The impact of sea ice conditions on breeding decisions is modulated by body condition in an arctic partial capital breeder
- Source :
- Integrative Biology Publications, Biological Sciences Publications
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Scholarship at UWindsor, 2018.
-
Abstract
- Determining how environmental conditions interact with individual intrinsic properties is important for unravelling the underlying mechanisms that drive variation in reproductive decisions among migratory species. We investigated the influence of sea ice conditions and body condition at arrival on the breeding propensity, i.e. the decision to reproduce or not within a single breeding season, and timing of laying in migrating common eiders (Somateria mollissima) breeding in the Arctic. Using Radarsat satellite images acquired from 2002 to 2013, we estimated the proportion of open water in the intertidal zone in early summer to track the availability of potential foraging areas for pre-breeding females. Timing of ice-breakup varied by up to 20 days across years and showed strong relationship with both breeding propensity and the timing of laying of eiders: fewer pre-breeding individuals were resighted nesting in the colony and laying was also delayed in years with late ice-breakup. Interestingly, the effect of sea ice dynamics on reproduction was modulated by the state of individuals at arrival on the breeding grounds: females arriving in low condition were more affected by a late ice-breakup. Open water accessibility in early summer, a likely proxy of food availability, is thus crucial for reproductive decisions in a (partial) capital breeder. Our predictive capacity in determining how Arctic-breeding seabirds respond to changes in environmental conditions will require incorporating such cross-seasonal cumulative effects.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Foraging
Sea ice
Intertidal zone
Breeding
Biology
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Proxy (climate)
Seasonal breeder
Animals
Ice Cover
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
Breeding propensity
Arctic Regions
Ecology
Reproduction
Integrative Biology
Individual state
Life Sciences
Cumulative effects
Common eider
010601 ecology
Ducks
Arctic
Female
Reproductive decisions
Body condition
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Integrative Biology Publications, Biological Sciences Publications
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....155f150d4b52a9e4205f52bb584ec862