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Living close, doing differently: Small-scale asynchrony in demography of two species of seabirds

Tavecchia, Giacomo, Minguez, E., Leon, D., Louzao, M., Oroi, D. (2008) Living close, doing differently: Small-scale asynchrony in demography of two species of seabirds. Ecology, 89 (1). pp. 77-85. ISSN 0012-9658. (doi:10.1890/06-0326.1) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:15256)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/06-0326.1

Abstract

Studies on spatiotemporal pattern of population abundance predict that close populations should exhibit a high level of synchrony, reflected in a parallel time variation of at least one demographic parameter. We tested this prediction for two threatened species of Procellariiformes sharing similar life history traits: the European Storm Petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) and the Balearic Shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus). Within each species, we compared adult Survival, proportion of transients (breeders that do not settle), and average productivity at two neighboring colonies. Physical and environmental features (e.g., food availability) of the breeding sites were similar. However, while Balearic Shearwater colonies were free of predators, aerial predators occurred especially in one colony of the European Storm Petrel. Despite this difference, we found similar results for the two species. A high proportion of transient birds was detected in only one colony of each species, ranging between 0.00-0.38 and 0.10-0.63 for the petrels and shearwaters, respectively. This seems to be all emergent feature of spatially structured populations of seabirds, unrelated to colony size or predator pressure, that can have important demographic consequences for local population dynamics and their synchrony. Local survival of resident birds was different Lit each colony, an unexpected result, especially for predator-free colonies of Balearic Shearwater. Productivity varied between the two colonies of European Storm Petrels, but not between the two colonies of Balearic Shearwaters. We demonstrated that within each species, several demographic parameters were colony specific and Sufficiently different to generate short-term asynchronous dynamics. Our findings Suggest that, in spatially structured populations, local factors, such as predation or small-scale habitat features, or population factors, such as individual quality or age structure, can generate unexpected asynchrony between neighboring populations.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1890/06-0326.1
Uncontrolled keywords: adult survival analysis; Balearic Shearwater; capture-recapture; demography; European Storm Petrel; Hydrobates pelagicus; population synchrony; Procellariiformes; Puffinus mauretanicus; seabirds
Subjects: Q Science > QH Natural history > QH541 Ecology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science
Depositing User: Louise Dorman
Date Deposited: 18 May 2009 13:51 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:53 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/15256 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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