Windscapes shape seabird instantaneous energy costs but adult behavior buffers impact on offspring
Abstract Background Windscapes affect energy costs for flying animals, but animals can adjust their behavior to accommodate wind-induced energy costs. Theory predicts that flying animals should decrease air speed to compensate for increased tailwind speed and increase air speed to compensate for inc...
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ftbiomed:oai:biomedcentral.com:s40462-014-0017-2 2023-05-15T15:44:57+02:00 Windscapes shape seabird instantaneous energy costs but adult behavior buffers impact on offspring Elliott, Kyle Chivers, Lorraine S Bessey, Lauren Gaston, Anthony J Hatch, Scott A Kato, Akiko Osborne, Orla Ropert-Coudert, Yan Speakman, John R Hare, James F 2014-09-12 http://www.movementecologyjournal.com/content/2/1/17 en eng BioMed Central Ltd. http://www.movementecologyjournal.com/content/2/1/17 Copyright 2014 Elliott et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. Research 2014 ftbiomed 2014-09-14T00:40:19Z Abstract Background Windscapes affect energy costs for flying animals, but animals can adjust their behavior to accommodate wind-induced energy costs. Theory predicts that flying animals should decrease air speed to compensate for increased tailwind speed and increase air speed to compensate for increased crosswind speed. In addition, animals are expected to vary their foraging effort in time and space to maximize energy efficiency across variable windscapes. Results We examined the influence of wind on seabird (thick-billed murre Uria lomvia and black-legged kittiwake Rissa tridactyla ) foraging behavior. Airspeed and mechanical flight costs (dynamic body acceleration and wing beat frequency) increased with headwind speed during commuting flights. As predicted, birds adjusted their airspeed to compensate for crosswinds and to reduce the effect of a headwind, but they could not completely compensate for the latter. As we were able to account for the effect of sampling frequency and wind speed, we accurately estimated commuting flight speed with no wind as 16.6 ms −1 (murres) and 10.6 ms −1 (kittiwakes). High winds decreased delivery rates of schooling fish (murres), energy (murres) and food (kittiwakes) but did not impact daily energy expenditure or chick growth rates. During high winds, murres switched from feeding their offspring with schooling fish, which required substantial above-water searching, to amphipods, which required less above-water searching. Conclusions Adults buffered the adverse effect of high winds on chick growth rates by switching to other food sources during windy days or increasing food delivery rates when weather improved. Other/Unknown Material Black-legged Kittiwake rissa tridactyla thick-billed murre Uria lomvia uria BioMed Central |
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Abstract Background Windscapes affect energy costs for flying animals, but animals can adjust their behavior to accommodate wind-induced energy costs. Theory predicts that flying animals should decrease air speed to compensate for increased tailwind speed and increase air speed to compensate for increased crosswind speed. In addition, animals are expected to vary their foraging effort in time and space to maximize energy efficiency across variable windscapes. Results We examined the influence of wind on seabird (thick-billed murre Uria lomvia and black-legged kittiwake Rissa tridactyla ) foraging behavior. Airspeed and mechanical flight costs (dynamic body acceleration and wing beat frequency) increased with headwind speed during commuting flights. As predicted, birds adjusted their airspeed to compensate for crosswinds and to reduce the effect of a headwind, but they could not completely compensate for the latter. As we were able to account for the effect of sampling frequency and wind speed, we accurately estimated commuting flight speed with no wind as 16.6 ms −1 (murres) and 10.6 ms −1 (kittiwakes). High winds decreased delivery rates of schooling fish (murres), energy (murres) and food (kittiwakes) but did not impact daily energy expenditure or chick growth rates. During high winds, murres switched from feeding their offspring with schooling fish, which required substantial above-water searching, to amphipods, which required less above-water searching. Conclusions Adults buffered the adverse effect of high winds on chick growth rates by switching to other food sources during windy days or increasing food delivery rates when weather improved. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Elliott, Kyle Chivers, Lorraine S Bessey, Lauren Gaston, Anthony J Hatch, Scott A Kato, Akiko Osborne, Orla Ropert-Coudert, Yan Speakman, John R Hare, James F |
spellingShingle |
Elliott, Kyle Chivers, Lorraine S Bessey, Lauren Gaston, Anthony J Hatch, Scott A Kato, Akiko Osborne, Orla Ropert-Coudert, Yan Speakman, John R Hare, James F Windscapes shape seabird instantaneous energy costs but adult behavior buffers impact on offspring |
author_facet |
Elliott, Kyle Chivers, Lorraine S Bessey, Lauren Gaston, Anthony J Hatch, Scott A Kato, Akiko Osborne, Orla Ropert-Coudert, Yan Speakman, John R Hare, James F |
author_sort |
Elliott, Kyle |
title |
Windscapes shape seabird instantaneous energy costs but adult behavior buffers impact on offspring |
title_short |
Windscapes shape seabird instantaneous energy costs but adult behavior buffers impact on offspring |
title_full |
Windscapes shape seabird instantaneous energy costs but adult behavior buffers impact on offspring |
title_fullStr |
Windscapes shape seabird instantaneous energy costs but adult behavior buffers impact on offspring |
title_full_unstemmed |
Windscapes shape seabird instantaneous energy costs but adult behavior buffers impact on offspring |
title_sort |
windscapes shape seabird instantaneous energy costs but adult behavior buffers impact on offspring |
publisher |
BioMed Central Ltd. |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.movementecologyjournal.com/content/2/1/17 |
genre |
Black-legged Kittiwake rissa tridactyla thick-billed murre Uria lomvia uria |
genre_facet |
Black-legged Kittiwake rissa tridactyla thick-billed murre Uria lomvia uria |
op_relation |
http://www.movementecologyjournal.com/content/2/1/17 |
op_rights |
Copyright 2014 Elliott et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. |
_version_ |
1766379316451475456 |