Floating bird nests provide resources for wildlife: ecological roles of vertebrates using Aechmophorus grebe nests at Clear Lake, California

Hayes, Floyd E.; Turner, Dylan G.; McIntosh, Bryan J.; Weidemann, Douglas E.; Zimmerly, Nathan D.; Peralta, Manuel B.; Stoppelmoor, Daniel B.; Hellie, Mychal E.

doi:10.1007/s11273-018-9631-x

Cited by 2 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…We documented only a few cases of incidental destruction of grebe eggs by spawning Common Carp and basking Western Pond Turtles and Pond Sliders, usually eggs in alreadyabandoned nests. Because many species of vertebrates exploit the nests of grebes for egg dumping, predation, scavenging, resting, and foraging (Hayes et al 2018a), incidental destruction of eggs likely occurs more frequently than our limited data suggest. Destruction of nests by the Common Carp was considered the second highest cause of nest failure in Western Grebes at a marsh in Manitoba, Canada, but that result was limited to a single colony during a single year (LaPorte et al 2014).…”

Section: Natural Causes Of Nest Failurementioning

confidence: 93%

“…Elsewhere we have published details of our recent grebe research at Clear Lake on copulation behavior (Hayes and Turner 2017), use of nests by other species of vertebrates (Hayes et al 2018a), nocturnal reproductive activities (Hayes et al 2018b), and destruction of eggs by males (Hayes et al 2018c).…”

Section: Smentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Estimating the breeding population size of grebes on Clear Lake and its associated wetlands is difficult. Nest counts do not accurately reflect the number of breeding pairs because some nests are abandoned before eggs are laid and others are reused multiple times, presumably by pairs whose initial nest(s) failed, because a nest is a resource that requires considerable energy to construct and maintain (Hayes and Turner 2017, Hayes et al 2018a, 2018b, 2018c. The midsummer population surveys along relatively standardized transects on Clear Lake are also inaccurate for estimating the number of breeding pairs because we could not enter the shallower and narrower channels and lagoons of Rodman Slough and Anderson Marsh in a motorboat to count the hundreds or thousands of grebes nesting in those areas during most years (Table 2).…”

Section: Breeding Population Size and Productivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Destruction of nests by the Common Carp was considered the second highest cause of nest failure in Western Grebes at a marsh in Manitoba, Canada, but that result was limited to a single colony during a single year (LaPorte et al 2014). Elsewhere we reported the use of grebe nests at Clear Lake by 47 species of vertebrates (Hayes et al 2018a). In 2019 we added a new species: a Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus) foraging for invertebrates on a grebe nest.…”

Section: Natural Causes Of Nest Failurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both species nest in Clear Lake. The grebes are ecosystem engineers whose floating nests significantly alter the environment, providing resources for at least 47 other species of vertebrates on Clear Lake (Hayes et al 2018a). However, the grebes' breeding populations have been severely impacted by human activities.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Historical and Recent Breeding of the Western Grebe and Clark's Grebe in a Severely Impaired Ecosystem at Clear Lake, California

Hayes

McIntosh²,

Turner

et al. 2022

Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist

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Clear Lake is a large (176.7-km 2 ) natural lake in northern California, USA. An estimated 1000 pairs of Western Grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and Clark's Grebes (A. clarkii) nested on the lake prior to massive applications of the pesticide dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane (DDD) to kill the Clear Lake gnat (Chaoborus astictopus) during 1949-1957. Biomagnification of DDD was implicated as the cause of several mass mortality events of grebes and short-term reproductive failure in the 1950s, although other factors such as mercury (Hg) poisoning may have contributed. Successful nesting resumed in 1960 and increased gradually, with up to 165 nests in 1967 but fewer through 1976. Subsequent surveys revealed up to 390 nests annually during 1992-1995 and up to 2675 nests annually during 1996-2010. We conducted 7-29 nest surveys annually during 2010-2019 and found a mean of 3123 nests per year. The annual number of nests varied dramatically (range 898 to 5936) and was unrelated to water level. The grebes nested at 28 sites in Clear Lake and 9 sites in associated wetlands, with proportionately more nests on Clear Lake and fewer nests in adjacent wetlands during years with low water level. Western Grebes attended 84.9% of the nests and Clark's Grebes attended 15.1%. During years with low water, there were proportionately more open water nests, which were anchored to submergent vegetation farther from shore and in deeper water than marsh nests, which were more densely placed in emergent vegetation closer to shore in shallower water. Brood surveys along the perimeter of the lake at the end of each breeding season revealed considerable variation in the number of young (1-599, x -= 153.9), young per nest (0.00025-0.118, x -= 0.04), and productivity ratio of young to adults (0.0006-0.252, x -= 0.07). Reproductive success was unrelated to water level. Wind-generated waves were a major cause of nest failure, destroying up to 35% of a year's nests. Predation on eggs was also a major cause of nest failure. American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) was the dominant predator during the day (84% of predation events), and northern raccoon (Procyon lotor) was the dominant predator at night (98% of predation events). Nocturnal predation by mammals occurred most frequently when water level was high because nests were placed closer to shore and were more accessible. The grebes' breeding population has recovered since DDD biomagnification during the 1950s and may be larger due to 2 introduced fish species competing for plankton with benthic larvae of the Clear Lake gnat, which previously transferred large quantities of biomass from aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems during emergence. However, the grebes' reproductive success remains lower at Clear Lake than at several other breeding localities. The bioaccumulation and biomagnification of toxic chemicals and the periodic reductions of prey fish from hypoxic areas of the lake during periods of intense cyanobacterial and algal blooms may reduce reproductive success.

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Section: Natural Causes Of Nest Failurementioning

confidence: 93%