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Trevail AM, Green JA, Bolton M, Daunt F, Harris SM, Miller PI, Newton S, Owen E, Polton JA, Robertson G, Sharples J, Patrick SC. Environmental heterogeneity promotes individual specialisation in habitat selection in a widely distributed seabird. J Anim Ecol 2021; 90:2875-2887. [PMID: 34492121 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2020] [Accepted: 08/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Individual specialisations in behaviour are predicted to arise where divergence benefits fitness. Such specialisations are more likely in heterogeneous environments where there is both greater ecological opportunity and competition-driven frequency dependent selection. Such an effect could explain observed differences in rates of individual specialisation in habitat selection, as it offers individuals an opportunity to select for habitat types that maximise resource gain while minimising competition; however, this mechanism has not been tested before. Here, we use habitat selection functions to quantify individual specialisations while foraging by black-legged kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla, a marine top predator, at 15 colonies around the United Kingdom and Ireland, along a gradient of environmental heterogeneity. We find support for the hypothesis that individual specialisations in habitat selection while foraging are more prevalent in heterogeneous environments. This trend was significant across multiple dynamic habitat variables that change over short time-scales and did not arise through site fidelity, which highlights the importance of environmental processes in facilitating behavioural adaptation by predators. Individual differences may drive evolutionary processes, and therefore these results suggest that there is broad scope for the degree of environmental heterogeneity to determine current and future population, species and community dynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice M Trevail
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.,Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK
| | - Jonathan A Green
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Mark Bolton
- RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Sandy, UK
| | - Francis Daunt
- Centre for Ecology & Hydrology Edinburgh, Penicuik, UK
| | | | - Peter I Miller
- Remote Sensing Group, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK
| | | | - Ellie Owen
- RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Sandy, UK
| | | | - Gail Robertson
- School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Jonathan Sharples
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Samantha C Patrick
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
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2
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Schwarz JN. Dynamic partitioning of tropical Indian Ocean surface waters using ocean colour data - management and modelling applications. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2020; 276:111308. [PMID: 32891983 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2019] [Revised: 07/16/2020] [Accepted: 08/23/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Over the past few decades, partitioning of the surface ocean into ecologically-meaningful spatial domains has been approached using a range of data types, with the aim of improving our understanding of open ocean processes, supporting marine management decisions and constraining coupled ocean-biogeochemical models. The simplest partitioning method, which could provide low-latency information for managers at low cost, remains a purely optical classification based on ocean colour remote sensing. The question is whether such a simple approach has value. Here, the efficacy of optical classifications in constraining physical variables that modulate the epipelagic environment is tested for the tropical Indian Ocean, with a focus on the Chagos marine protected area (MPA). Using remote sensing data, it was found that optical classes corresponded to distinctive ranges of wind speed, wind stress curl, sea surface temperature, sea surface slope, sea surface height anomaly and geostrophic currents (Kruskal-Wallis and post-hoc Tukey honestly significantly different tests, α = 0.01). Between-class differences were significant for a set of sub-domains that resolved zonal and meridional gradients across the MPA and Seychelles-Chagos Thermocline Ridge, whereas between-domain differences were only significant for the north-south gradient (PERMANOVA, α = 0.01). A preliminary test of between-class differences in surface CO2 concentrations from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 demonstrated a small decrease in mean pCO2 with increasing chlorophyll (chl), from 418 to 398 ppm. Simple optical class maps therefore provide an overview of growth conditions, the spatial distribution of resources - from which habitat fragmentation metrics can be calculated, and carbon sequestration potential. Within the 17 year study period, biotic variables were found to have decreased at up to 0.025%a-1 for all optical classes, which is slower than reported elsewhere (Mann-Kendall-Sen regression, α = 0.01). Within the MPA, positive Indian Ocean Dipole conditions and negative Southern Oscillation Indices were weakly associated with decreasing chl, fluorescence line height (FLH), eddy kinetic energy, easterly wind stress and wind stress curl, and with increasing FLH/chl, sea surface temperature, SSH gradients and northerly wind stress, consistent with reduced surface mixing and increased stratification. The optical partitioning scheme described here can be applied in Google Earth Engine to support management decisions at daily or monthly scales, and potential applications are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jill N Schwarz
- School of Biological & Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK.
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3
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Tarroux A, Cherel Y, Fauchald P, Kato A, Love OP, Ropert‐Coudert Y, Spreen G, Varpe Ø, Weimerskirch H, Yoccoz NG, Zahn S, Descamps S. Foraging tactics in dynamic sea‐ice habitats affect individual state in a long‐ranging seabird. Funct Ecol 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13632] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Arnaud Tarroux
- Department of Arctic Ecology ‐ Tromsø Norwegian Institute for Nature Research Tromsø Norway
- Biodiversity Section Norwegian Polar Institute Tromsø Norway
| | - Yves Cherel
- Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC) UMR 7372 du CNRS‐La Rochelle Université Villiers‐en‐Bois France
| | - Per Fauchald
- Department of Arctic Ecology ‐ Tromsø Norwegian Institute for Nature Research Tromsø Norway
| | - Akiko Kato
- Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC) UMR 7372 du CNRS‐La Rochelle Université Villiers‐en‐Bois France
| | - Oliver P. Love
- Department of Biological Sciences University of Windsor Windsor ON Canada
| | - Yan Ropert‐Coudert
- Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC) UMR 7372 du CNRS‐La Rochelle Université Villiers‐en‐Bois France
| | - Gunnar Spreen
- Biodiversity Section Norwegian Polar Institute Tromsø Norway
- Institute of Environmental Physics University of Bremen Bremen Germany
| | - Øystein Varpe
- Department of Biological Sciences University of Bergen & Norwegian Institute for Nature Research Bergen Norway
| | - Henri Weimerskirch
- Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC) UMR 7372 du CNRS‐La Rochelle Université Villiers‐en‐Bois France
| | - Nigel G. Yoccoz
- Department of Arctic and Marine Biology University of Tromsø ‐ The Arctic University of Norway Tromsø Norway
| | - Sandrine Zahn
- Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien Université de StrasbourgUMR7178 CNRS Strasbourg France
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4
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Harris SM, Descamps S, Sneddon LU, Bertrand P, Chastel O, Patrick SC. Personality predicts foraging site fidelity and trip repeatability in a marine predator. J Anim Ecol 2019; 89:68-79. [PMID: 31541578 PMCID: PMC7004082 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2019] [Accepted: 08/23/2019] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Animal populations are often comprised of both foraging specialists and generalists. For instance, some individuals show higher foraging site fidelity (spatial specialization) than others. Such individual differences in degree of specialization can persist over time‐scales of months or even years in long‐lived animals, but the mechanisms leading to these different individual strategies are not fully understood. There is accumulating evidence that individual variation in foraging behaviour is shaped by animal personality traits, such as boldness. Despite this, the potential for boldness to drive differences in the degree of specialization is unknown. In this study, we used novel object tests to measure boldness in black‐legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) breeding at four colonies in Svalbard and deployed GPS loggers to examine their at‐sea foraging behaviour. We estimated the repeatability of foraging trips and used a hidden Markov model to identify locations of foraging sites in order to quantify individual foraging site fidelity. Across the breeding season, bolder birds were more repeatable than shy individuals in the distance and range of their foraging trips, and during the incubation period (but not chick rearing), bolder individuals were more site‐faithful. Birds exhibited these differences while showing high spatial similarity in foraging areas, indicating that site selection was not driven by personality‐dependent spatial partitioning. We instead suggest that a relationship between boldness and site fidelity may be driven by differences in behavioural flexibility between bold and shy individuals. Together, these results provide a potential mechanism by which widely reported individual differences in foraging specialization may emerge.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie M Harris
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | | | - Lynne U Sneddon
- Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Philip Bertrand
- Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, Tromsø, Norway.,Department of Biology and Center for Northern Studies, University of Quebec, Rimouski, QC, Canada
| | - Olivier Chastel
- Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), UMR 7372 CNRS Université de La Rochelle, Villiers-en-Bois, France
| | - Samantha C Patrick
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
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5
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Trevail AM, Green JA, Sharples J, Polton JA, Miller PI, Daunt F, Owen E, Bolton M, Colhoun K, Newton S, Robertson G, Patrick SC. Environmental heterogeneity decreases reproductive success via effects on foraging behaviour. Proc Biol Sci 2019; 286:20190795. [PMID: 31161906 PMCID: PMC6571457 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0795] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Environmental heterogeneity shapes the uneven distribution of resources available to foragers, and is ubiquitous in nature. Optimal foraging theory predicts that an animal's ability to exploit resource patches is key to foraging success. However, the potential fitness costs and benefits of foraging in a heterogeneous environment are difficult to measure empirically. Heterogeneity may provide higher-quality foraging opportunities, or alternatively could increase the cost of resource acquisition because of reduced patch density or increased competition. Here, we study the influence of physical environmental heterogeneity on behaviour and reproductive success of black-legged kittiwakes, Rissa tridactyla. From GPS tracking data at 15 colonies throughout their British and Irish range, we found that environments that were physically more heterogeneous were associated with longer trip duration, more time spent foraging while away from the colony, increased overlap of foraging areas between individuals and lower breeding success. These results suggest that there is greater competition between individuals for finite resources in more heterogeneous environments, which comes at a cost to reproduction. Resource hotspots are often considered beneficial, as individuals can learn to exploit them if sufficiently predictable. However, we demonstrate here that such fitness gains can be countered by greater competition in more heterogeneous environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice M Trevail
- 1 School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool , Liverpool , UK
| | - Jonathan A Green
- 1 School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool , Liverpool , UK
| | - Jonathan Sharples
- 1 School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool , Liverpool , UK
| | | | - Peter I Miller
- 3 Remote Sensing Group, Plymouth Marine Laboratory , Plymouth , UK
| | - Francis Daunt
- 4 Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Edinburgh , Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian , UK
| | - Ellie Owen
- 5 RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, RSPB Scotland, Etive House, Beechwood Park, Inverness , UK
| | - Mark Bolton
- 6 RSPB Centre for Conservation Science , The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire , UK
| | - Kendrew Colhoun
- 7 RSPB Centre for Conservation Science , Belfast , UK.,8 School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin , Bellfield, Dublin 4 , Ireland
| | | | - Gail Robertson
- 10 School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh , Edinburgh , UK
| | - Samantha C Patrick
- 1 School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool , Liverpool , UK
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