Territory Quality, Parental Effort and Reproductive Success of Oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus)

Ens, Bruno J.; Kersten, Marcel; Brenninkmeijer, A.; Hulscher, J.B.

doi:10.2307/5625

Cited by 203 publications

(186 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Many adults are non-breeders owing to habitat saturation [39]. Breeders in high-quality habitat produce two to three times more offspring annually than pairs in low-quality habitat owing to differences in feeding ecology [40]. Consequently, six life stages can be used to describe the main sources of withinyear variation in demographic rates ( figure 1c).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Poor environmental tracking can make extinction risk insensitive to the colour of environmental noise

et al. 2011

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The relative importance of environmental colour for extinction risk compared with other aspects of environmental noise (mean and interannual variability) is poorly understood. Such knowledge is currently relevant, as climate change can cause the mean, variability and temporal autocorrelation of environmental variables to change. Here, we predict that the extinction risk of a shorebird population increases with the colour of a key environmental variable: winter temperature. However, the effect is weak compared with the impact of changes in the mean and interannual variability of temperature. Extinction risk was largely insensitive to noise colour, because demographic rates are poor in tracking the colour of the environment. We show that three mechanisms-which probably act in many species-can cause poor environmental tracking: (i) demographic rates that depend nonlinearly on environmental variables filter the noise colour, (ii) demographic rates typically depend on several environmental signals that do not change colour synchronously, and (iii) demographic stochasticity whitens the colour of demographic rates at low population size. We argue that the common practice of assuming perfect environmental tracking may result in overemphasizing the importance of noise colour for extinction risk. Consequently, ignoring environmental autocorrelation in population viability analysis could be less problematic than generally thought.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Poor environmental tracking can make extinction risk insensitive to the colour of environmental noise

et al. 2011

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“…Part (2001a,b) shows that territory quality in the wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) is related to vegetation height. In oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus) that breed in coastal areas, Ens et al (1992) found that territories are either of good quality (adjacent to the feeding area) or poor quality (far from the feeding area).…”

Section: Environmental State Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal annual routines: behaviour in the context of physiology and ecology

McNamara

Houston

2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

177

149

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Organisms in a seasonal environment often schedule activities in a regular way over the year. If we assume that such annual routines have been shaped by natural selection then life-history theory should provide a basis for explaining them. We argue that many life-history trade-offs are mediated by underlying physiological variables that act on various time scales. The dynamics of these variables often preclude considering one period of the year in isolation. In order to capture the essence of annual routines, and many life-history traits, a detailed model of changes in physiological state over the annual cycle is required. We outline a modelling approach based on suitable physiological and ecological state variables that can capture this underlying biology, and describe how models based on this approach can be used to generate a range of insights and predictions.

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“…Differences in quality between breeding birds could result from differences in phenotypic quality, e.g., foraging ability, or from differences in environmental quality, e.g., food availability in the territory (see Ens et al 1992). Similarly, effects of timing of breeding can be subdivided into separate categories.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal Decline in Reproductive Success of the Great Tit: Variation in Time or Quality?

Verhulst

Balen

Tinbergen³

1995

Ecology

295

242

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Seasonal variation in reproductive success is a common feature of most organisms. To understand the evolution of breeding seasons and reproductive strategies of individual animals, it is necessary to assess the extent to which seasonal variation in reproductive success is causally related to seasonal variation in the environment ('timing' hypothesis), to differences in quality between early and late breeders or their territories ('quality' hypothesis), or to a combination of both. We manipulated timing of breeding in the Great Tit Parus major, a small passerine, to test these hypotheses. A group of experimentally delayed birds was created by removing first clutches, inducing birds to lay a replacement clutch. Reproductive success of delayed pairs was compared with control pairs that bred early and with pairs that bred late. We conclude that seasonal declines in reproductive success at the nestling stage and survival of adult females were caused by differences in quality between early and late breeders. Recruitment of fledglings into the breeding population and the occurrence of second clutches were causally related to the timing of breeding. The seasonal decline in clutch size was caused by a combination of timing and quality effects. We attempted to assess the relative importance of timing and quality in the seasonal decline in reproductive success, expressed as lifetime production of recruits. We tentatively conclude that 87% of the seasonal decline in lifetime reproductive success could be attributed to a timing effect per se, whereas quality differences between early and late breeders accounted for the remaining 13%.

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Territory Quality, Parental Effort and Reproductive Success of Oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus)

Cited by 203 publications

References 49 publications

Poor environmental tracking can make extinction risk insensitive to the colour of environmental noise

Poor environmental tracking can make extinction risk insensitive to the colour of environmental noise

Optimal annual routines: behaviour in the context of physiology and ecology

Seasonal Decline in Reproductive Success of the Great Tit: Variation in Time or Quality?

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