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Anika Immer, Thomas Merkling, Olivier Chastel, Scott A. Hatch, Etienne Danchin, Pierrick Blanchard, Sarah Leclaire. (2021). Spying on your neighbours? Social information affects timing of breeding and stress hormone levels in a colonial seabird (Vol. 35).
Abstract: A good overlap between offspring energetic requirements and availability of resources is required for successful reproduction. Accordingly, individuals from numerous species fine-tune their timing of breeding by integrating cues that predict environmental conditions during the offspring period. Besides acquiring information from their direct interaction with the environment (personal information), individuals can integrate information by observing the behaviours or performance of others (social information). The use of social information is often beneficial because the accumulated knowledge of conspecifics may represent a source of information more reliable than the intrinsically more limited personal information. However, although social information constitutes the major source of information in a wide range of contexts, studies investigating its use in the context of timing of breeding are scarce. We investigated whether black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) used social information to adjust the timing of egg-laying. We manipulated social information using a food-supplementation experiment, known to advance kittiwakes' reproductive phenology. We expected food-supplemented and unsupplemented pairs to delay and advance, respectively, their timing of laying when surrounded by a majority of neighbours from the opposite food-treatment. However, both unsupplemented and food-supplemented kittiwakes delayed egg-laying when surrounded by a higher proportion of neighbours from the opposite food-treatment. This result shows that kittiwakes use social information to time egg-laying, but that it is not used to match the seasonal peak of food availability. We suggest that when social and personal cues give contradictory environmental information, individuals may benefit from delaying laying to gather more information to make better decisions about investment into eggs. Further, we explored a potential proximate mechanism for the pattern we report. We show that baseline corticosterone, known to mediate reproductive decisions, was lower in unsupplemented females facing a higher proportion of food-supplemented neighbours. Altogether, our results suggest that to fine-tune their timing of laying, kittiwakes use complex decision-making processes in which social and personal information interplay.
Programme: 1162
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. (2021). An assessment of the endemic spermatophytes, pteridophytes and bryophytes of the French Overseas Territories: towards a better conservation outlook (Vol. 30).
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Danish A. Ahmed, Emma J. Hudgins, Ross N. Cuthbert, Phillip J. Haubrock, David Renault, Elsa Bonnaud, Christophe Diagne, Franck Courchamp. (2021). Modelling the damage costs of invasive alien species.
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. (2021). Predation by feral cats threatens great albatrosses (Vol. 23).
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Samara Danel, Jules Chiffard-Carricaburu, Francesco Bonadonna, Anna P. Nesterova. (2021). Exclusion in the field: wild brown skuas find hidden food in the absence of visual information (Vol. 24).
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Lara D. Shepherd, Colin M. Miskelly, Yves Cherel, Alan J. D. Tennyson. (2021). Genetic identification informs on the distributions of vagrant Royal (Eudyptes schlegeli) and Macaroni (Eudyptes chrysolophus) Penguins (Vol. 44).
Keywords: Antarctica Eudyptes chrysolophus Eudyptes schlegeli Genetic identification Penguin distribution Predation
Programme: 109
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. (2021). (Vol. 44).
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. (2021). Divergence time and species delimitation of microbivalves in the Southern Ocean: the case of Kidderia species (Vol. 44).
Abstract: The systematics of Subantarctic and Antarctic near-shore marine benthic invertebrates requires major revision and highlights the necessity to incorporate additional sources of information in the specimen identification chart in the Southern Ocean (SO). In this study, we aim to improve our understanding of the biodiversity of Kidderia (Dall 1876) through molecular and morphological comparisons of Antarctic and Subantarctic taxa. The microbivalves of the genus Kidderia are small brooding organisms that inhabit intertidal and shallow subtidal rocky ecosystems. This genus represents an interesting model to test the vicariance and dispersal hypothesis in the biogeography of the SO. However, the description of Kidderia species relies on a few morphological characters and biogeographic records that raise questions about the true diversity in the group. Here we will define the specimens collected with genetic tools, delimiting their respective boundaries across provinces of the SO, validating the presence of two species of Kidderia. Through the revision of taxonomic issues and species delimitation, it was possible to report that the Antarctic species is Kidderia subquadrata and the species recorded in the Subantarctic islands Diego Ramirez, South Georgia and the Kerguelen Archipelago is Kidderia minuta. The divergence time estimation suggests the origin and diversification of Kidderia lineages are related to historical vicariant processes probably associated with the separation of the continental landmasses close to the late Eocene.
Programme: 1044
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Pierre-Yves Pascal, Yann Reynaud, Elie Poulin, Chantal De Ridder, Thomas Saucede. (2021). Feeding in spatangoids: the case of Abatus Cordatus in the Kerguelen Islands (Southern Ocean) (Vol. 44).
Abstract: Irregular urchins exclusively live in marine soft bottom habitats, dwelling either upon or inside sediments and selectively picking up sediment grains and organic particles, or swallowing bulk sediment to feed on the associated organic matter. The exact food source and dietary requirements of most irregular echinoids, however, remain incompletely understood. The schizasterid species Abatus cordatus (Verrill, 1876) is a sub-Antarctic spatangoid that is endemic to the Kerguelen. The feeding behaviour of A. cordatus was investigated using simultaneously metabarcoding and stable isotope approaches. Comparison of ingested and surrounding sediments by metabarcoding revealed a limited selective ingestion of prokaryotes and eukaryotes by the urchin. Compared to surrounding sediments, the gut content had (i) higher carbon and nitrogen concentrations potentially due to selective ingestion of organic matter and/or the sea urchin mucus secretion and (ii) ?15N enrichment due to the selective assimilation of lighter isotope in the gut. Feeding experiments were performed using 13C and 15 N-enriched sediments in aquariums. The progression of stable isotope enrichment in proximal and distal parts of the digestive track of A. cordatus revealed that all particles are not similarly transported likely due to siphon functioning. Ingestion of water with associated dissolved and particulate organic matter should play an important role in urchin nutrition. A. cordatus had a gut resident time fluctuating between 76 and 101 h and an ingestion rate of 36 mg dry sediment h?1 suggesting that dense populations of the species may play a key ecological role through bioturbation in soft bottom shallow-water habitats of the Kerguelen Islands.
Programme: 1044
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Peter S. Ungar, Blaire Van Valkenburgh, Alexandria S. Peterson, Aleksandr A. Sokolov, Natalia A. Sokolova, Dorothee Ehrich, Ivan A. Fufachev, Olivier Gilg, Alexandra Terekhina, Alexander Volkovitskiy, Viktor Shtro. (2021). Dental evidence for variation in diet over time and space in the Arctic fox, Vulpes lagopus (Vol. 44).
Abstract: Studies of the effects of variation in resource availability are important for understanding the ecology of high-latitude mammals. This paper examines the potential of dental evidence (tooth wear and breakage) as a proxy for diet and food choice in Vulpes lagopus, the Arctic fox. It presents a preliminary study of dental microwear, gross wear score, and tooth breakage in a sample (n?=?78 individuals) from the Yamal Peninsula of the Russian Arctic. While these measures have each been associated with feeding ecology in larger carnivorans (e.g., proportion of bone in the diet), they have yet to be combined in any study and have rarely been applied to smaller species or those from high latitudes. Arctic foxes from the north and south of the peninsula, and those from rodent peak and trough density periods, are compared to assess impact of changes in food availability across space and time. Results indicate that microwear textures vary in dispersion, with more variation in texture complexity, including higher values (suggesting more consumption of bone), in the rodent-poor period in the north of Yamal. Gross wear scores and tooth breakage are also significantly higher for the north of Yamal than the south. These data together suggest that dental evidence can provide important insights into variation in the feeding ecology of Arctic foxes and potentially into the impacts of changes in food abundance across space and time.
Programme: 1036
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