Nutrient allocation for egg production in six Atlantic seabirds

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Zoology
• Main Authors: Bond, Alexander L., Diamond, Antony W.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 2010
• Subjects: Alca torda; Arctic tern; Atlantic puffin; Common Murre; Common tern; fratercula; Fratercula arctica; Oceanodroma leucorhoa; Razorbill; Sterna hirundo; Sterna paradisaea; Uria aalge; uria
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z10-082; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/Z10-082; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/Z10-082

How species allocate nutrients to egg production is an important question in contaminant analyses. Seabird eggs are sampled frequently in such studies, so it is important to know the source of nutrients in these eggs if the source of the contaminants is to be traced. We used a stable-isotope approach to evaluate the relative importance of locally derived nutrients (income breeding) and stored nutrient reserves (capital breeding) in six species of Atlantic seabirds (Arctic Tern, Sterna paradisaea Pontoppidan, 1763; Common Tern, Sterna hirundo L., 1758; Atlantic Puffin, Fratercula arctica (L., 1758); Common Murre, Uria aalge (Pontoppidan, 1763); Razorbill, Alca torda L., 1758; Leach’s Storm-Petrel, Oceanodroma leucorhoa (Vieillot, 1818)) breeding in the Bay of Fundy. We found that all species either were income breeders or adopted an intermediate strategy whereby varying proportions of locally derived nutrients were incorporated into eggs. Each species’ migratory behaviour is likely a main factor in determining the amount of endogenous nutrients used in egg formation.