Effects of food abundance and early clutch predation on reproductive timing in a high Arctic shorebird exposed to advancements in arthropod abundance |
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| Authors: | Jeroen Reneerkens Niels Martin Schmidt Olivier Gilg Jannik Hansen Lars Holst Hansen Jérôme Moreau Theunis Piersma |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Conservation Ecology Group, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands;2. Arctic Research Centre, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark;3. Laboratoire Biogéosciences, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France;4. Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Arctique (GREA), Francheville, France;5. NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Coastal Systems and Utrecht University, Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | Climate change may influence the phenology of organisms unequally across trophic levels and thus lead to phenological mismatches between predators and prey. In cases where prey availability peaks before reproducing predators reach maximal prey demand, any negative fitness consequences would selectively favor resynchronization by earlier starts of the reproductive activities of the predators. At a study site in northeast Greenland, over a period of 17 years, the median emergence of the invertebrate prey of Sanderling Calidris alba advanced with 1.27 days per year. Yet, over the same period Sanderling did not advance hatching date. Thus, Sanderlings increasingly hatched after their prey was maximally abundant. Surprisingly, the phenological mismatches did not affect chick growth, but the interaction of the annual width and height of the peak in food abundance did. Chicks grew especially better in years when the food peak was broad. Sanderling clutches were most likely to be depredated early in the season, which should delay reproduction. We propose that high early clutch predation may favor a later reproductive timing. Additionally, our data suggest that in most years food was still abundant after the median date of emergence, which may explain why Sanderlings did not advance breeding along with the advances in arthropod phenology. |
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| Keywords: | Bird migration Calidris alba chick growth climate change nest survival phenology timing trophic interactions trophic mismatch |
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