Climate and spatio-temporal variation in the population dynamics of a long distance migrant, the white stork |
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Authors: | Saether Bernt-Erik Grøtan Vidar Tryjanowski Piotr Barbraud Christophe Engen Steinar Fulin Miroslav |
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Affiliation: | Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway;;Department of Behavioural Ecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 89, PL-61614 Poznań, Poland;;Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, CNRS-UPR 1934, 79360 Villiers en Bois, France;;Groupe Ornithologique Aunis Saintonge, Palais des Congrès, 17300 Rochefort, France;;Department of Mathematical Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway;and;East-Slovakian Museum Kosice, Hviezdoslavova 3, SK-041 36 Košice, Slovakia |
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Abstract: | 1. A central question in ecology is to separate the relative contribution of density dependence and stochastic influences to annual fluctuations in population size. Here we estimate the deterministic and stochastic components of the dynamics of different European populations of white stork Ciconia ciconia. We then examined whether annual changes in population size was related to the climate during the breeding period (the 'tap hypothesis' sensu Saether, Sutherland & Engen (2004, Advances in Ecological Research, 35, 185 209) or during the nonbreeding period, especially in the winter areas in Africa (the 'tube hypothesis'). 2. A general characteristic of the population dynamics of this long-distance migrant is small environmental stochasticity and strong density regulation around the carrying capacity with short return times to equilibrium. 3. Annual changes in the size of the eastern European populations were correlated by rainfall in the wintering areas in Africa as well as local weather in the breeding areas just before arrival and in the later part of the breeding season and regional climate variation (North Atlantic Oscillation). This indicates that weather influences the population fluctuations of white storks through losses of sexually mature individuals as well as through an effect on the number of individuals that manages to establish themselves in the breeding population. Thus, both the tap and tube hypothesis explains climate influences on white stork population dynamics. 4. The spatial scale of environmental noise after accounting for the local dynamics was 67 km, suggesting that the strong density dependence reduces the synchronizing effects of climate variation on the population dynamics of white stork. 5. Several climate variables reduced the synchrony of the residual variation in population size after accounting for density dependence and demographic stochasticity, indicating that these climate variables had a synchronizing effect on the population fluctuations. In contrast, other climatic variables acted as desynchronizing agents. 6. Our results illustrate that evaluating the effects of common environmental variables on the spatio-temporal variation in population dynamics require estimates and modelling of their influence on the local dynamics. |
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Keywords: | climate effects on population dynamics density dependence environmental stochasticity population synchrony white stork |
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