Journal
AMERICAN NATURALIST
Volume 198, Issue 4, Pages 540-550Publisher
UNIV CHICAGO PRESS
DOI: 10.1086/715702
Keywords
seabirds; reptiles; centipedes; insects; trophic estimation; stable isotopes
Categories
Funding
- Norfolk Island National Park, Parks Australia
- New South Wales Department of Planning Industry and Environment
- Australian government
- New South Wales Department of Industry and Planning
- Norfolk Island National Park
- Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment Equity Trustees Charitable Foundation
- Ecological Society of Australia
- Birdlife Australia Stuart Leslie Bird Research Award
- Australasian Seabird Group Student Award
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The study found that centipedes play a significant role in predating on black-winged petrel nestlings on Norfolk Islands, causing a high mortality rate and leading to breeding failure for the petrels. This demonstrates the impact arthropods can have on vertebrate reproductive output and trophic structures in island ecosystems.
On isolated islands, large arthropods can play an important functional role in ecosystem dynamics. On the Norfolk Islands group, South Pacific, we monitored the diet and foraging activity of an endemic chilopod, the Phillip Island centipede (Cormocephalus coynei), and used a stable isotope mixing model to estimate dietary proportions. Phillip Island centipede diet is represented by vertebrate animals (48%) and invertebrates (52%), with 30.5% consisting of squamates, including the Lord Howe Island skink (Oligosoma lichenigera) and Gunther's island gecko (Christinus guentheri); 7.9% consisting of black-winged petrel (Pterodroma nigripennis) nestlings; and 9.6% consisting of marine fishes scavenged from regurgitated seabird meals. Centipede predation was the principal source of petrel nestling mortality, with annual rates of predation varying between 11.1% and 19.6% of nestlings. This means that 2,109-3,724 black-winged petrel nestlings may be predated by centipedes annually. Petrels produce a single offspring per year; therefore, predation of nestlings by centipedes represents total breeding failure for a pair in a given year. Our work demonstrates that arthropods can play a leading role in influencing vertebrate reproductive output and modifying trophic structures and nutrient flow in island ecosystems.
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