Patterns in avian reproduction in the Prudhoe Bay Oilfield, Alaska, 2003–2019 ...

• Main Authors: McGuire, Rebecca, Robards, Martin, Liebezeit, Joseph
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2023
• Subjects: FOS Biological sciences; Arctic; Infrastructure; Nest density; nest survival; Passerines; shorebirds; Waterfowl; Climate change; Prudhoe Bay; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.stqjq2c7c; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.stqjq2c7c

The Arctic Coastal Plain is one of the most important avian breeding grounds in the world; however, many species are in decline. Arctic-breeding birds contend with short breeding seasons, harsh climatic conditions, and now, rapidly changing, variable, and unpredictable environmental conditions caused by climate change. Additionally, those breeding in industrial areas may be impacted by human activities. It is difficult to separate the impacts of industrial development and climate change, however, long-term datasets can help show patterns over time. We evaluated factors influencing reproductive parameters of breeding birds at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, 2003–2019, by monitoring 1265 shorebird nests, 378 passerine nests, and 231 waterfowl nests. We found that nest survival decreased significantly nearer high-use infrastructure for all guilds. Temporally, passerine nest survival declined across the 17 years of the study, while there was no significant evidence of change in their nest density. Shorebird nest survival ... : We used generalized linear models and a logit link (Program MARK) to evaluate daily nest survival. We examined a hierarchical model set. Models of daily nest survival varied by year, guild (shorebird, waterfowl or passerine), habitat (wetland, moist, upland), initiation date, and incubation strategy (biparental or uniparental, shorebirds only), distance to infrastructure, area of infrastructure within a 2 km radius of the nest, and distance to the nearest road. We ran all main effects models, then combined ‘strong’ effects additively and multiplicably. We included one post-hoc model to further evaluate the relationship between spring conditions and incubation strategy where we held passerines and waterfowl constant but allowed shorebird daily survival rate to vary by individual year and incubation strategy (DSRyear*strategy). We compared models using AICc (Akaike’s Information Criterion corrected for small sample sizes), in which we considered the model with lowest AICc value to be the best-fitting and ...