Journal
IBIS
Volume 160, Issue 3, Pages 608-623Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/ibi.12571
Keywords
climate change; clutch size; incubation duration; nest survival; waders
Categories
Funding
- National Fish and Wildlife Foundation [2010-0061-015, 2011-0032-014, 0801.12.032731, 0801.13.041129]
- Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act [F11AP01040, F12AP00734, F13APO535, 4073]
- Arctic Goose Joint Venture
- Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
- BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc.
- Bureau of Land Management
- Canada Fund for Innovation
- Canada Research Chairs
- Cape Krusenstern National Monument grant
- Centre for Wildlife Ecology at Simon Fraser University
- Churchill Northern Studies Centre
- Cornell University Graduate School Mellon Grant
- Ducks Unlimited Canada
- Environment and Climate Change Canada
- FQRNT (Quebec)
- Government of Nunavut
- Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada
- Kansas State University
- Kresge Foundation
- Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation
- Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences
- Mississippi Flyway Council
- Murie Science and Learning Center grants
- National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
- National Park Service
- National Science Foundation (Office of Polar Programs Grant) [ARC-1023396]
- National Science Foundation (Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant) [1110444]
- Natural Resources Canada (Polar Continental Shelf Program)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Northern Studies Training Program
- Selawik National Wildlife Refuge
- Trust for Mutual Understanding
- Universite du Quebec a Rimouski
- University of Alaska Fairbanks
- University of Colorado Denver
- University of Missouri Columbia
- University of Moncton
- US Fish and Wildlife Service (Migratory Bird Management Division, Survey, Monitoring and Assessment Program)
- US Fish and Wildlife Service (Alaska National Wildlife Refuge System's Challenge Cost Share Program)
- US Fish and Wildlife Service (Avian Influenza Health and Influenza programmes)
- US Geological Survey (USGS) (Changing Arctic Ecosystem Initiative, Wildlife Program of the USGS Ecosystem Mission Area)
- W. Garfield Weston Foundation
- Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The Arctic is experiencing rapidly warming conditions, increasing predator abundance, and diminishing population cycles of keystone species such as lemmings. However, it is still not known how many Arctic animals will respond to a changing climate with altered trophic interactions. We studied clutch size, incubation duration and nest survival of 17 taxa of Arctic-breeding shorebirds at 16 field sites over 7years. We predicted that physiological benefits of higher temperatures and earlier snowmelt would increase reproductive effort and nest survival, and we expected increasing predator abundance and decreasing abundance of alternative prey (arvicoline rodents) to have a negative effect on reproduction. Although we observed wide ranges of conditions during our study, we found no effects of covariates on reproductive traits in 12 of 17 taxa. In the remaining taxa, most relationships agreed with our predictions. Earlier snowmelt increased the probability of laying a full clutch from 0.61 to 0.91 for Western Sandpipers, and shortened incubation by 1.42days for arcticola Dunlin and 0.77days for Red Phalaropes. Higher temperatures increased the probability of a full clutch from 0.60 to 0.93 for Western Sandpipers and from 0.76 to 0.97 for Red-necked Phalaropes, and increased daily nest survival rates from 0.9634 to 0.9890 for Semipalmated Sandpipers and 0.9546 to 0.9880 for Western Sandpipers. Higher abundance of predators (foxes) reduced daily nest survival rates only in Western Sandpipers (0.9821-0.9031). In contrast to our predictions, the probability of a full clutch was lowest (0.83) for Semipalmated Sandpipers at moderate abundance of alternative prey, rather than low abundance (0.90). Our findings suggest that in the short-term, climate warming may have neutral or positive effects on the nesting cycle of most Arctic-breeding shorebirds.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available