Predation risk and reproductive effort: impacts of moonlight on food provisioning and chick growth in Manx shearwaters

Riou, Samuel; Hamer, Keith C.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.08.012

Cited by 35 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…First, although we have identified the ratio of colony light exposure to surrounding areas as an important factor, making colonies brighter is not a solution because of the other adverse affects this would entail (e.g., increased predation; Oro et al 2005;Riou and Hamer 2008;Keitt et al 2004). Mitigation measures should include the use of light shielding, particularly in sites that attract more birds.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Remote sensing to map influence of light pollution on Cory’s shearwater in São Miguel Island, Azores Archipelago

et al. 2011

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Global economic and population growth increase the extent and intensity of artificial night lighting. From an ecological perspective, this is light pollution, which causes changes in reproductive physiology, migration and foraging of many species and ultimately leads to loss of biodiversity. Some seabirds are intimately linked with the light features of their environments because they are nocturnally active. We report light-induced groundings of Cory's shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) during a 2-year study (2008 and 2009) in São Miguel Island, in the Azores archipelago, and investigate the spatial correlation of locations of grounded birds with an annual composite of remotely sensed stable lights. Results indicate that 16.7% of fledglings are attracted to lights. The exposure of shearwater colonies in the study area to artificial night lighting is low overall. Four colonies account for 87% of the grounded birds. The distance each bird was found from the closest colony was best explained by the ratio of the satellite-measured light levels at the grounding spot to the light levels at the assigned colony of origin. These results demonstrate that satellite-observed nighttime lights are sufficient to assess risk to marine birds at the scale of oceanic islands and indicate their utility for monitoring the effectiveness of programs to manage lighting to reduce risk for these species and conducting global assessments of species vulnerability. To minimize the impact on Cory's shearwater and other marine birds, we recommend measures such as reduction and control of lighting intensity near colony locations, while continuing and re-enforcing rescue campaigns.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Remote sensing to map influence of light pollution on Cory’s shearwater in São Miguel Island, Azores Archipelago

et al. 2011

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“…Previous studies have suggested that nocturnal colony attendance among these seabirds is an adaptation to minimize predation risk from diurnal avian predators [36], [37], [38]. Nocturnal seabirds reduce nighttime activity and alter the timing of their visit to the colony on moonlit nights, supporting the idea that nocturnal visitation reduces predation risk [3], [39]. Despite nocturnal colony attendance, ancient murrelets are frequently killed by predators on their breeding grounds, presumably while returning to or departing from their nests [40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Incubation Patterns in a Central-Place Forager Affect Lifetime Reproductive Success: Scaling of Patterns from a Foraging Bout to a Lifetime

et al. 2011

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BackgroundLong-lived seabirds face a conflict between current and lifelong reproductive success. During incubation shifts, egg neglect is sometimes necessary to avoid starvation, but may compromise the current reproductive attempt. However, factors underlying this decision process are poorly understood. We focus on the ancient murrelet, Synthliboramphus antiquus, an alcid with exceptionally long incubation shift lengths, and test the impact of environmental factors on incubation shift length in relation to reproductive success.Methodology/Principal FindingsUsing an information theoretic approach, we show that incubation shift length was a strong predictor of reproductive success for ancient murrelets at Reef Island, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada during the 2007 and 2008 breeding seasons. The most important factors explaining an individual's shift length were egg size, wind speed and the length of the mate's previous shift. Wind speed and tide height were the two most important factors for determining foraging behavior, as measured by dive frequency and depth.Conclusions/SignificanceOur study demonstrates that (i) species-specific reproductive strategies interact with environmental conditions such as wind speed to form multiple incubation patterns and (ii) maintaining regular incubation shifts is an essential component of reproductive success.

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“…60 d of age in 2007 and 2008. Trials at the colony indicated that weak and intermittent signals were sometimes received if a bird was on the water in the vicinity of land, but consistent, strong signals were obtained only from birds returning to their nests (Riou & Hamer 2008). Chicks were weighed twice daily (at dawn and dusk), and mass increments between successive weighings overnight were used as estimates of meal sizes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent impacts of anthropogenic climate change on a higher marine predator in western Britain

Riou¹,

Gray²,

Brooke³

et al. 2011

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Impacts of anthropogenic climate change on marine ecosystems are now widely acknowledged. In the NE Atlantic, abundant evidence from the partly enclosed waters of the North Sea indicates that recent climate-induced changes in primary and secondary productivity have been propagated up the food chain, with marked consequences for higher vertebrate predators such as seabirds. In contrast, however, there is much less indication of such impacts on higher predators in the more open Atlantic waters around the west coast of the British Isles. Through an annual comparison of chick growth and adult food provisioning behaviour of Manx shearwaters in SW Wales, we found that birds bred later and chicks attained lower peak and fledging masses in 2007 and 2008 than in any previous recorded year dating back to 1965. These changes were accompanied by a reduction in parental attendance at the colony, which was probably the result of parents switching to a dual foraging strategy in 2007 and 2008. These events were linked to higher sea surface temperature in the preceding winter and to a reduction in prey quality, as indicated by the mean body mass of 2 yr old herring. These are the first such findings for the west coast of Britain and indicate that within the NE Atlantic region, adverse impacts of climate change on higher marine predators are no longer restricted to the vicinity of the North Sea.

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Predation risk and reproductive effort: impacts of moonlight on food provisioning and chick growth in Manx shearwaters

Cited by 35 publications

References 28 publications

Remote sensing to map influence of light pollution on Cory’s shearwater in São Miguel Island, Azores Archipelago

Remote sensing to map influence of light pollution on Cory’s shearwater in São Miguel Island, Azores Archipelago

Incubation Patterns in a Central-Place Forager Affect Lifetime Reproductive Success: Scaling of Patterns from a Foraging Bout to a Lifetime

Recent impacts of anthropogenic climate change on a higher marine predator in western Britain

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