No change in Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross ( Thalassarche chlororhynchos ) egg size over 160 years
Biotic and abiotic conditions in the world’s oceans have changed considerably in the last two centuries as a result of anthropogenic factors, including whaling, sealing, fishing, and climate change. For species that have limited variation in life-history traits, life-history characteristics may impe...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | unknown |
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Taylor & Francis
2020
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| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12263015.v1 https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/No_change_in_Atlantic_Yellow-nosed_Albatross_i_Thalassarche_chlororhynchos_i_egg_size_over_160_years/12263015/1 |
| Summary: | Biotic and abiotic conditions in the world’s oceans have changed considerably in the last two centuries as a result of anthropogenic factors, including whaling, sealing, fishing, and climate change. For species that have limited variation in life-history traits, life-history characteristics may impede the ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Albatrosses are one such group, where breeding investment is limited to a single egg every one or two years. At a coarse level, individuals may decide whether to breed or not, or whether to incubate an egg or not, but one of the only finer-scale adjustment in parental investment involves altering egg size, along with parental foraging and chick provisioning. We investigated changes in egg size in Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses ( Thalassarche chlororhynchos ) breeding at Tristan da Cunha, South Atlantic Ocean, from 1856 to 2015. We found no change in egg length, or breadth, which may suggest that with regards to this life-history parameter, Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses appear to have been able to buffer the effects of the trophic, climatic and oceanographic changes in the South Atlantic Ocean. |
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