Warming in the land of the midnight sun: breeding birds may suffer greater heat stress at high- versus low-Arctic sites

Rising global temperatures are expected to increase reproductive costs for wildlife as greater thermoregulatory demands interfere with reproductive activities. However, predicting the temperatures at which reproductive performance is negatively impacted remains a significant hurdle. Using a thermore...

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Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Main Authors: O'Connor, Ryan S., Le Pogam, Audrey, Young, Kevin G., Love, Oliver P., Cox, Christopher J., Roy, Gabrielle, Robitaille, Francis, Elliott, Kyle H., Hargreaves, Anna L., Choy, Emily S., Gilchrist, H. Grant, Berteaux, Dominique, Tam, Andrew, Vézina, François
Other Authors: FRQNT team grant, Polar Knowledge Canada, NSERC Discovery Grant, NSERC Discover Grant, Canada Research Chairs
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: The Royal Society 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0300
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2022.0300
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2022.0300
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author O'Connor, Ryan S.
Le Pogam, Audrey
Young, Kevin G.
Love, Oliver P.
Cox, Christopher J.
Roy, Gabrielle
Robitaille, Francis
Elliott, Kyle H.
Hargreaves, Anna L.
Choy, Emily S.
Gilchrist, H. Grant
Berteaux, Dominique
Tam, Andrew
Vézina, François
author2 FRQNT team grant
Polar Knowledge Canada
NSERC Discovery Grant
NSERC Discover Grant
Canada Research Chairs
author_facet O'Connor, Ryan S.
Le Pogam, Audrey
Young, Kevin G.
Love, Oliver P.
Cox, Christopher J.
Roy, Gabrielle
Robitaille, Francis
Elliott, Kyle H.
Hargreaves, Anna L.
Choy, Emily S.
Gilchrist, H. Grant
Berteaux, Dominique
Tam, Andrew
Vézina, François
author_sort O'Connor, Ryan S.
collection The Royal Society
container_issue 1981
container_title Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
container_volume 289
description Rising global temperatures are expected to increase reproductive costs for wildlife as greater thermoregulatory demands interfere with reproductive activities. However, predicting the temperatures at which reproductive performance is negatively impacted remains a significant hurdle. Using a thermoregulatory polygon approach, we derived a reproductive threshold temperature for an Arctic songbird—the snow bunting ( Plectrophenax nivalis ). We defined this threshold as the temperature at which individuals must reduce activity to suboptimal levels (i.e. less than four-time basal metabolic rate) to sustain nestling provisioning and avoid overheating. We then compared this threshold to operative temperatures recorded at high (82° N) and low (64° N) Arctic sites to estimate how heat constraints translate into site-specific impacts on sustained activity level. We predict buntings would become behaviourally constrained at operative temperatures above 11.7°C, whereupon they must reduce provisioning rates to avoid overheating. Low-Arctic sites had larger fluctuations in solar radiation, consistently producing daily periods when operative temperatures exceeded 11.7°C. However, high-latitude birds faced entire, consecutive days when parents would be unable to sustain required provisioning rates. These data indicate that Arctic warming is probably already disrupting the breeding performance of cold-specialist birds and suggests counterintuitive and severe negative impacts of warming at higher latitude breeding locations.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
genre Arctic
Plectrophenax nivalis
Snow Bunting
midnight sun
genre_facet Arctic
Plectrophenax nivalis
Snow Bunting
midnight sun
geographic Arctic
geographic_facet Arctic
id crroyalsociety:10.1098/rspb.2022.0300
institution Open Polar
language English
op_collection_id crroyalsociety
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0300
op_rights https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/
op_source Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
volume 289, issue 1981
ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954
publishDate 2022
publisher The Royal Society
record_format openpolar
spelling crroyalsociety:10.1098/rspb.2022.0300 2025-03-23T15:30:21+00:00 Warming in the land of the midnight sun: breeding birds may suffer greater heat stress at high- versus low-Arctic sites O'Connor, Ryan S. Le Pogam, Audrey Young, Kevin G. Love, Oliver P. Cox, Christopher J. Roy, Gabrielle Robitaille, Francis Elliott, Kyle H. Hargreaves, Anna L. Choy, Emily S. Gilchrist, H. Grant Berteaux, Dominique Tam, Andrew Vézina, François FRQNT team grant Polar Knowledge Canada NSERC Discovery Grant NSERC Discover Grant Canada Research Chairs 2022 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0300 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2022.0300 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2022.0300 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 289, issue 1981 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 journal-article 2022 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0300 2025-02-26T11:21:14Z Rising global temperatures are expected to increase reproductive costs for wildlife as greater thermoregulatory demands interfere with reproductive activities. However, predicting the temperatures at which reproductive performance is negatively impacted remains a significant hurdle. Using a thermoregulatory polygon approach, we derived a reproductive threshold temperature for an Arctic songbird—the snow bunting ( Plectrophenax nivalis ). We defined this threshold as the temperature at which individuals must reduce activity to suboptimal levels (i.e. less than four-time basal metabolic rate) to sustain nestling provisioning and avoid overheating. We then compared this threshold to operative temperatures recorded at high (82° N) and low (64° N) Arctic sites to estimate how heat constraints translate into site-specific impacts on sustained activity level. We predict buntings would become behaviourally constrained at operative temperatures above 11.7°C, whereupon they must reduce provisioning rates to avoid overheating. Low-Arctic sites had larger fluctuations in solar radiation, consistently producing daily periods when operative temperatures exceeded 11.7°C. However, high-latitude birds faced entire, consecutive days when parents would be unable to sustain required provisioning rates. These data indicate that Arctic warming is probably already disrupting the breeding performance of cold-specialist birds and suggests counterintuitive and severe negative impacts of warming at higher latitude breeding locations. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Plectrophenax nivalis Snow Bunting midnight sun The Royal Society Arctic Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 289 1981
spellingShingle O'Connor, Ryan S.
Le Pogam, Audrey
Young, Kevin G.
Love, Oliver P.
Cox, Christopher J.
Roy, Gabrielle
Robitaille, Francis
Elliott, Kyle H.
Hargreaves, Anna L.
Choy, Emily S.
Gilchrist, H. Grant
Berteaux, Dominique
Tam, Andrew
Vézina, François
Warming in the land of the midnight sun: breeding birds may suffer greater heat stress at high- versus low-Arctic sites
title Warming in the land of the midnight sun: breeding birds may suffer greater heat stress at high- versus low-Arctic sites
title_full Warming in the land of the midnight sun: breeding birds may suffer greater heat stress at high- versus low-Arctic sites
title_fullStr Warming in the land of the midnight sun: breeding birds may suffer greater heat stress at high- versus low-Arctic sites
title_full_unstemmed Warming in the land of the midnight sun: breeding birds may suffer greater heat stress at high- versus low-Arctic sites
title_short Warming in the land of the midnight sun: breeding birds may suffer greater heat stress at high- versus low-Arctic sites
title_sort warming in the land of the midnight sun: breeding birds may suffer greater heat stress at high- versus low-arctic sites
url https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0300
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2022.0300
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2022.0300