Coping mechanisms of alpine and arctic breeding birds: extreme weather and limitations to reproductive resilience
SYNOPSIS. As ground nesting homeotherms, alpine and arctic birds must meet similar physiological re-quirements for breeding as other birds, but must do so in more extreme conditions. Annual spring snowfall and timing of snow melt can vary by up to 1 month and daily temperatures near the ground surfa...
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ftciteseerx:oai:CiteSeerX.psu:10.1.1.495.3523 2023-05-15T14:29:33+02:00 Coping mechanisms of alpine and arctic breeding birds: extreme weather and limitations to reproductive resilience Kathy Martin Karen L. Wiebe The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives 2004 application/pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.495.3523 http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/2/177.full.pdf en eng http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.495.3523 http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/2/177.full.pdf Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/2/177.full.pdf text 2004 ftciteseerx 2016-01-08T08:44:33Z SYNOPSIS. As ground nesting homeotherms, alpine and arctic birds must meet similar physiological re-quirements for breeding as other birds, but must do so in more extreme conditions. Annual spring snowfall and timing of snow melt can vary by up to 1 month and daily temperatures near the ground surface vary from below freezing to over 458C in alpine and arctic habitats. Species breeding in these environments have various behavioral, physiological, and morphological adaptations to cope with energetically demanding con-ditions. We review the ways birds cope with harsh and variable weather, and present data from long term field studies of ptarmigan to examine effects of spring weather on reproduction. In variable but normal spring conditions, timing of breeding was not influenced by snow melt, snow depth or daily temperatures in the alpine, as breeding did not commence until conditions were generally favorable. Arctic ptarmigan tended to vary breeding onset in response to spring conditions. Generally, birds breeding in alpine and arctic habitats suffer a seasonal reproductive disadvantage compared to birds at lower latitudes or elevations because the breeding window is short and in late years, nest failure may be high with little opportunity for renesting. Coping mechanisms may only be effective below a threshold of climactic extremes. Despite strong resilience in fecundity parameters, when snowmelt is extremely delayed breeding success is greatly reduced. Alpine and arctic birds will be further challenged as they attempt to cope with anticipated increases in the frequency and severity of weather events (climate variability), as well as general climate warming. Text Arctic birds Arctic Unknown Arctic |
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English |
description |
SYNOPSIS. As ground nesting homeotherms, alpine and arctic birds must meet similar physiological re-quirements for breeding as other birds, but must do so in more extreme conditions. Annual spring snowfall and timing of snow melt can vary by up to 1 month and daily temperatures near the ground surface vary from below freezing to over 458C in alpine and arctic habitats. Species breeding in these environments have various behavioral, physiological, and morphological adaptations to cope with energetically demanding con-ditions. We review the ways birds cope with harsh and variable weather, and present data from long term field studies of ptarmigan to examine effects of spring weather on reproduction. In variable but normal spring conditions, timing of breeding was not influenced by snow melt, snow depth or daily temperatures in the alpine, as breeding did not commence until conditions were generally favorable. Arctic ptarmigan tended to vary breeding onset in response to spring conditions. Generally, birds breeding in alpine and arctic habitats suffer a seasonal reproductive disadvantage compared to birds at lower latitudes or elevations because the breeding window is short and in late years, nest failure may be high with little opportunity for renesting. Coping mechanisms may only be effective below a threshold of climactic extremes. Despite strong resilience in fecundity parameters, when snowmelt is extremely delayed breeding success is greatly reduced. Alpine and arctic birds will be further challenged as they attempt to cope with anticipated increases in the frequency and severity of weather events (climate variability), as well as general climate warming. |
author2 |
The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives |
format |
Text |
author |
Kathy Martin Karen L. Wiebe |
spellingShingle |
Kathy Martin Karen L. Wiebe Coping mechanisms of alpine and arctic breeding birds: extreme weather and limitations to reproductive resilience |
author_facet |
Kathy Martin Karen L. Wiebe |
author_sort |
Kathy Martin |
title |
Coping mechanisms of alpine and arctic breeding birds: extreme weather and limitations to reproductive resilience |
title_short |
Coping mechanisms of alpine and arctic breeding birds: extreme weather and limitations to reproductive resilience |
title_full |
Coping mechanisms of alpine and arctic breeding birds: extreme weather and limitations to reproductive resilience |
title_fullStr |
Coping mechanisms of alpine and arctic breeding birds: extreme weather and limitations to reproductive resilience |
title_full_unstemmed |
Coping mechanisms of alpine and arctic breeding birds: extreme weather and limitations to reproductive resilience |
title_sort |
coping mechanisms of alpine and arctic breeding birds: extreme weather and limitations to reproductive resilience |
publishDate |
2004 |
url |
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.495.3523 http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/2/177.full.pdf |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic birds Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic birds Arctic |
op_source |
http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/2/177.full.pdf |
op_relation |
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.495.3523 http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/2/177.full.pdf |
op_rights |
Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. |
_version_ |
1766303523760242688 |