Coping Mechanisms of Alpine and Arctic Breeding Birds: Extreme Weather and Limitations to Reproductive Resilience
As ground nesting homeotherms, alpine and arctic birds must meet similar physiological requirements for breeding as other birds, but must do so in more extreme conditions. Annual spring snowfall and timing of snow melt can vary by up to 1 month and daily temperatures near the ground surface vary fro...
Published in: | Integrative and Comparative Biology |
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fthighwire:oai:open-archive.highwire.org:icbiol:44/2/177 2023-05-15T14:29:33+02:00 Coping Mechanisms of Alpine and Arctic Breeding Birds: Extreme Weather and Limitations to Reproductive Resilience Martin, Kathy Wiebe, Karen L. 2004-04-01 00:00:00.0 text/html http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/44/2/177 https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/44.2.177 en eng Oxford University Press http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/44/2/177 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icb/44.2.177 Copyright (C) 2004, The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Regular Article TEXT 2004 fthighwire https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/44.2.177 2007-06-24T02:28:03Z As ground nesting homeotherms, alpine and arctic birds must meet similar physiological requirements for breeding as other birds, but must do so in more extreme conditions. Annual spring snowfall and timing of snow melt can vary by up to 1 month and daily temperatures near the ground surface vary from below freezing to over 45°C in alpine and arctic habitats. Species breeding in these environments have various behavioral, physiological, and morphological adaptations to cope with energetically demanding conditions. We review the ways birds cope with harsh and variable weather, and present data from long term field studies of ptarmigan to examine effects of spring weather on reproduction. In variable but normal spring conditions, timing of breeding was not influenced by snow melt, snow depth or daily temperatures in the alpine, as breeding did not commence until conditions were generally favorable. Arctic ptarmigan tended to vary breeding onset in response to spring conditions. Generally, birds breeding in alpine and arctic habitats suffer a seasonal reproductive disadvantage compared to birds at lower latitudes or elevations because the breeding window is short and in late years, nest failure may be high with little opportunity for renesting. Coping mechanisms may only be effective below a threshold of climactic extremes. Despite strong resilience in fecundity parameters, when snowmelt is extremely delayed breeding success is greatly reduced. Alpine and arctic birds will be further challenged as they attempt to cope with anticipated increases in the frequency and severity of weather events (climate variability), as well as general climate warming. Text Arctic birds Arctic HighWire Press (Stanford University) Arctic Integrative and Comparative Biology 44 2 177 185 |
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HighWire Press (Stanford University) |
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English |
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Regular Article |
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Regular Article Martin, Kathy Wiebe, Karen L. Coping Mechanisms of Alpine and Arctic Breeding Birds: Extreme Weather and Limitations to Reproductive Resilience |
topic_facet |
Regular Article |
description |
As ground nesting homeotherms, alpine and arctic birds must meet similar physiological requirements for breeding as other birds, but must do so in more extreme conditions. Annual spring snowfall and timing of snow melt can vary by up to 1 month and daily temperatures near the ground surface vary from below freezing to over 45°C in alpine and arctic habitats. Species breeding in these environments have various behavioral, physiological, and morphological adaptations to cope with energetically demanding conditions. We review the ways birds cope with harsh and variable weather, and present data from long term field studies of ptarmigan to examine effects of spring weather on reproduction. In variable but normal spring conditions, timing of breeding was not influenced by snow melt, snow depth or daily temperatures in the alpine, as breeding did not commence until conditions were generally favorable. Arctic ptarmigan tended to vary breeding onset in response to spring conditions. Generally, birds breeding in alpine and arctic habitats suffer a seasonal reproductive disadvantage compared to birds at lower latitudes or elevations because the breeding window is short and in late years, nest failure may be high with little opportunity for renesting. Coping mechanisms may only be effective below a threshold of climactic extremes. Despite strong resilience in fecundity parameters, when snowmelt is extremely delayed breeding success is greatly reduced. Alpine and arctic birds will be further challenged as they attempt to cope with anticipated increases in the frequency and severity of weather events (climate variability), as well as general climate warming. |
format |
Text |
author |
Martin, Kathy Wiebe, Karen L. |
author_facet |
Martin, Kathy Wiebe, Karen L. |
author_sort |
Martin, Kathy |
title |
Coping Mechanisms of Alpine and Arctic Breeding Birds: Extreme Weather and Limitations to Reproductive Resilience |
title_short |
Coping Mechanisms of Alpine and Arctic Breeding Birds: Extreme Weather and Limitations to Reproductive Resilience |
title_full |
Coping Mechanisms of Alpine and Arctic Breeding Birds: Extreme Weather and Limitations to Reproductive Resilience |
title_fullStr |
Coping Mechanisms of Alpine and Arctic Breeding Birds: Extreme Weather and Limitations to Reproductive Resilience |
title_full_unstemmed |
Coping Mechanisms of Alpine and Arctic Breeding Birds: Extreme Weather and Limitations to Reproductive Resilience |
title_sort |
coping mechanisms of alpine and arctic breeding birds: extreme weather and limitations to reproductive resilience |
publisher |
Oxford University Press |
publishDate |
2004 |
url |
http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/44/2/177 https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/44.2.177 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic birds Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic birds Arctic |
op_relation |
http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/44/2/177 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icb/44.2.177 |
op_rights |
Copyright (C) 2004, The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/44.2.177 |
container_title |
Integrative and Comparative Biology |
container_volume |
44 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
177 |
op_container_end_page |
185 |
_version_ |
1766303523557867520 |