Range limits, breeding distributions, and the role of stochasticity in structuring the Antarctic Peninsula seabird metacommunity

• Main Authors: 3rd World Seabird Conference 2021, Schrimpf, Michael
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Underline Science Inc. 2021
• Subjects: Morphology; Infectious Diseases; FOS Health sciences; Ecosystem; Ecology; FOS Biological sciences; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Lynch; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48448/5yn9-fw68; https://underline.io/lecture/34758-range-limits,-breeding-distributions,-and-the-role-of-stochasticity-in-structuring-the-antarctic-peninsula-seabird-metacommunity

Abstract: Seabird breeding distributions are often examined at the level of individual species, but many seabirds nest at multispecies sites. We explored the metacommunity structure of Antarctic Peninsula seabirds, which live in a simple environment, well-suited to examining occupancy patterns. Site-specific breeding status for every member of the metacommunity was modeled by a series of multi-state Bayesian occupancy models, using 22 years of data on species detection. Several lines of evidence, including the absence of significant coherence, lack of clustered assemblages in ordination and geographic space, and high dissimilarity of neighboring sites, led to the conclusion that this metacommunity was structured by a stochastic colonization process. This pattern is consistent with expectations from the neutral theory of biodiversity, although here is likely driven more by site fidelity and colonization history than is usually assumed. However, comprehensive abundance data for the guild of pursuit-divers showed strongly non-overlapping patterns in the regional concentration of population size, indicating that deterministic factors play a larger role in subsequent colony growth. Our study demonstrates the value of taking a multi-species approach to the study of seabird breeding distributions, and highlights the need for continued collection of comprehensive abundance data when possible. Authors: Michael Schrimpf¹, Heather Lynch¹ ¹Stony Brook University