Spatial patterns of multi-colony synchrony in the breeding success of black-legged kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla in the UK

• Main Authors: 3rd World Seabird Conference 2021, Olin, Agnes
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Underline Science Inc. 2021
• Subjects: Climate Change; Ecosystem; Ecology; FOS Biological sciences; Animal Science; Genomics; rissa tridactyla
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48448/fbdy-fv34; https://underline.io/lecture/34912-spatial-patterns-of-multi-colony-synchrony-in-the-breeding-success-of-black-legged-kittiwakes-rissa-tridactyla-in-the-uk

Abstract: The way in which demographic rates fluctuate synchronously across spatially disjunct populations can have important consequences for the long-term persistence of metapopulations and can also be used to infer drivers of population dynamics. Here, we examined spatial patterns of synchrony in the breeding success of black-legged kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla in the UK, making use of time series from multiple colonies spanning three decades. We found that the strength of breeding success synchrony declined with distance between colonies, but also that some groups of colonies formed spatially coherent clusters in which breeding success fluctuated in unison. Furthermore, the spatial patterns of synchrony we identified aligned well with the spatial structure of the kittiwake's main prey in this region - the lesser sandeel Ammodytes marinus. This thus suggests that the spatially independent and disparate dynamics of sandeel subpopulations filter up to the level of kittiwakes, with important consequences for kittiwake demography. The study shows that examining spatial patterns of multi-colony synchrony in demographic rates can provide useful information for identifying environmental drivers as well as the spatial scale over which they are acting, improving our understanding of dynamics both at the scale of individual and multiple colonies. Authors: Agnes Olin¹, Neil Banas², Peter Wright³, Michael Heath², Ruedi Nager⁴ ¹Stockholm University, ²University of Strathclyde, ³Marine Scotland Science, ⁴University of Glasgow