Discriminating uniparental and biparental breeding strategies by monitoring nest temperature.

• Published in: Ibis
• Main Authors: Moreau, Jérôme, Perroud, Lucie, Bollache, Loïc, Yannic, Glenn, Teixeira, Maria, Schmidt, Niels Martin, Reneerkens, Jeroen, Gilg, Olivier
• Other Authors: Biogéosciences UMR 6282 Dijon (BGS), Université de Bourgogne (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire Chrono-environnement - CNRS - UBFC (UMR 6249) (LCE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Franche-Comté (UFC), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté COMUE (UBFC)-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté COMUE (UBFC), Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine (LECA ), Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes 2016-2019 (UGA 2016-2019 ), Department of Bioscience Roskilde, Aarhus University Aarhus, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University Aarhus -Arctic Research Centre, Conservation Ecology Group, University of Groningen Groningen -Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), Research supported by the French Polar Institute (IPEV, program 1036 ‘Interactions’), the Conseil Regional de Bourgogne, the Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Arctique (GREA) and the University of Bourgogne.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2018
• Subjects: arctic; Calidris alba; discriminant function; incubation strategy; nest attendance; nest temperature; parental care; shorebirds; envir; socio; Arctic; Recess; Sanderling
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12507; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01671919

International audience Birds exhibit a wide diversity of breeding strategies. During incubation or chick-rearing, parental care can be either uniparental, by either the male or the female, or biparental. Understanding the selective pressures that drive these different strategies represents an exciting challenge for ecologists. In this context, assigning the type of parental care at the nest (e.g. biparental or uniparental incubation strategy) is often a prerequisite to answering questions in evolutionary ecology. The aim of this study was to produce a standardized method unequivocally to assign an incubation strategy to any Sanderling Calidris alba nest found in the field by monitoring nest temperature profiles. Using drops of >3 °C in nest temperature (recorded with thermistors) to distinguish incubation and recess periods, we showed that the number of recesses and the total duration of these recesses from 09:00 to 17:00 h UTC allowed us reliably (99.1% after 24 h and 100% when monitoring the nest for at least 4 days) to assign the incubation strategy at the nest for 21 breeding adults (14 nests). Monitoring nest temperature for at least 24 h is an effective method to assign an incubation strategy without having to re-visit nests, thereby saving time in the field and minimizing both disturbance and related increase in predation risk of clutches. Given the advantages of our method, we suggest that it should be used more widely in studies that aim to document incubation strategies and patterns in regions where ambient temperatures are at least 3 °C below the median nest temperature. 10 pages