The Relationship Between Food Supply, Reproductive Effort and Breeding Success in Arctic Terns Sterna paradisaea

Monaghan, Pat; Uttley, J. D.; Burns, Martin D.; Thaine, C.; Blackwood, J. Scott

doi:10.2307/4999

Cited by 209 publications

(144 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…In Arctic Terns the mass decrease during incubation continued throughout chick-rearing. 4 The results of this study support a hypothesis of stress-induced mass reduction due to increased energy cost while chick-rearing for Common Terns. In all years both males and females showed significantly lower body mass values during chick-rearing than during incubation (Tables 2 and 3).…”

Section: Chick-rearingsupporting

confidence: 76%

“…1 In seabirds the energetic demands and constraints change in the course of the breeding season with consequent effects on body condition. [2][3][4][5] In some species (e.g. Herring Gull) adult mortality is highest at the end of a breeding cycle.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…11 In the Arctic Tern S. paradisaea it also influences the mass of adults rearing chicks. 4 Automatic recording of adult body mass during the periods of the breeding cycle gives valuable information on the body condition of individual birds and hence on constraints to which they are exposed. Since daily body mass of Common Terns fluctuates considerably, 11,12 body mass recording during the whole day is necessary to get information on condition.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Body mass change in breeding Common TernsSterna hirundo

Wendeln¹,

Becker²

1996

Bird Study

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Section: Chick-rearingsupporting

confidence: 76%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Body mass change in breeding Common TernsSterna hirundo

Wendeln¹,

Becker²

1996

Bird Study

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“…Great skuas regurgitate freshly obtained prey to their mate or chicks after returning from most absences from the territory (Furness 1987). Time spent away can therefore be used as an index of foraging effort (e.g Cairns 1987, Monaghan et al 1989, Hamer et al 1991, Phillips et al 1996a). The mean number of adults present within their breeding territory was determined at 1 to 5 d intervals at both colonies in 1996.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter-colony variation in diet and reproductive performance of great skuas Catharacta skua

Phillips¹,

Catry²,

Thompson³

et al. 1997

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Sustained population growth of great skuas Catharacta skua during the current century has been attributed largely to a high abundance of sandeels, principally Ammodytes marinus, and a plentiful supply of discards from whitefish trawlers in the vicinity of breeding colonies A new colony of great skuas was establ~shed at St Kilda, Outer Hebrides, in 1963 and has since grown rapidly despite an apparent lack of sandeels in the waters surrounding the archipelago and the presence of only a small whitefish fishery. This paper presents an analysis of diet and breeding ecology of great skuas at Hirta, St Kilda, over 3 seasons, 1994 to 1996, with comparative data from Foula, Shetland, the largest and one of the oldest of the British colonies. At St Kilda, breeding adults, nonbreeders and chicks all fed extensively upon other seabirds (44 to 65'\L of pellets over the 3 yr), and to a lesser extent on goose barnacles Lepassp. (18 to 30":, of pellets) and fish (16 to 30'X of pellets), with sandeel virtually absent from the diet (0.2 to 0.3% of pellets). In contrast, at Foula only 4 to 1 2 % of pellets were of other seabirds, with sandeels and d~scarded fish together const~tuting the vast majority ( 4 to 3 6 "~ and 55 to 88% of pellets, respectively). Despite the low availability of sandeels and discards at St k l d a , egg volumes, chick body condition and annual productivity were at least as high as at Foula, and territorial attendance of breeding adults was much higher, indicating considerably lower foraging effort during chick-rearing. Great skuas at St Kilda are therefore able to make effective use of other seabirds as a food resource during the breeding season, in sharp contrast to Foula where adult mortality increased and chick growth rates and breeding success plummeted during the marked decline in sandeel abundance in the late 1980s.

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“…However, the incubation period could be an exception to this general pattern in those species with biparental care, since the energy expenditure would be distributed between both sexes (Moreno 1989). Thus two opposing hypotheses may be proposed for changes in the energy reserves during incubation: the "Stress Hypothesis" would predict a pattern of gradual loss of reserves, because energetic costs are accumulated throughout the breeding season (Monaghan et al 1989;Wendeln and Becker 1996), whereas "Incubatory Reserves Constancy Hypothesis" would suggest that the incubation period may be a departure from breeding stress that allows for the maintenance or recovery of body reserves (see Houston et al 1983;Hario et al 1991; also suggested by Moreno [1989] for total body mass).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%