Extended incubation recesses in Sanderlings are impacted by temperature and body condition ...

• Main Authors: Etchart, Léa, Lecomte, Nicolas, Dechaume-Moncharmont, François-Xavier, Moreau, Jérôme, Lang, Johannes, Pagnon, Thomas, Sittler, Benoit, Teixeira, Maria, Bollache, Loic, Gilg, Olivier
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2023
• Subjects: incubation strategy; Parent-offspring trade-off; parental care; Sanderling; Greenland; FOS Biological sciences; Recess; Calidris alba
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v41ns1s3q; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.v41ns1s3q

Complex incubation strategies have evolved to solve the trade-off between parent survival and care for their eggs with often brief departures (recesses) that maximise egg survival or infrequent extended recesses maximising adult condition. Here we examined incubation behaviour of Sanderlings (Calidris alba), a species that exhibits both bi- and uniparental incubation behaviour. During 11 breeding seasons in Greenland, we have quantified incubation variability with thermologgers placed in nests. We estimated the impact of environmental conditions and individual characteristics on the occurrence and the duration of recesses. We found that extended recesses are a unique feature of uniparentals, and their frequency and duration increased in colder temperatures. The relationship was mediated by body condition, with individuals in poor condition performing longer extended recesses in colder temperatures. This suggests that extended recesses may represent a shift towards self-maintenance at the expense of the egg ... : This dataset (2011-2021) is a long-term monitoring based on fieldwork in Greenland. The field team collects behavioural data at Sanderling nests by putting thermologgers in the nest cups during the incubation period. Loggers are then retrieved at the end of the breeding season and data is processed with TinyTag Explorer Software. One dataset is at the recess (departure from the nest to forage) scale, and the other is at the daily scale (see Methods). Datasets are used in conjunction with the provided R code. ...