Climate Influences Fledgling Sex Ratio and Sex-Specific Dispersal in a Seabird

• Published in: PLoS ONE
• Main Authors: Barros, Álvaro, Álvarez, David, Velando, Alberto
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science 2013
• Subjects: Research Article; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3738640; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23951144; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071358

Climate influences the dynamics of natural populations by direct effects over habitat quality but also modulating the phenotypic responses of organisms’ life-history traits. These responses may be different in males and females, particularly in dimorphic species, due to sex-specific requirements or constraints. Here, in a coastal seabird, the European shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis), we studied the influence of climate (North Atlantic Oscillation, NAO; Sea Surface Temperature, SST) on two sex-related population parameters: fledgling sex ratio and sex-specific dispersal. We found that fledgling sex ratio was female skewed in NAO-positive years and male skewed in NAO-negative years. Accordingly, females dispersed a longer distance in NAO-positive years when females were overproduced, and on the contrary, males dispersed more in NAO-negative years. Overall, our findings provide rare evidence on vertebrates with genetic sex determination that climate conditions may govern population dynamics by affecting sex-specific density and dispersal.