Data from: Breeding synchrony and predator specialization: a test of the predator swamping hypothesis in seabirds

• Main Author: Descamps, Sébastien
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Life sciences; medicine and health care; Breeding success; Uria lomvia; Thalassoica antarctica; functional response; predator swamping; Rissa tridactyla; phenology; envir; psy; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Svalbard; Dronning Maud Land; Svarthamaren; Antarc*; Antarctic Petrel; Antarctica; brünnich's guillemot; rissa tridactyla; Spitsbergen; uria
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.63q3v2r

Reproductive synchrony is a widespread phenomenon that is predicted to be adaptive for prey with specialist predators but not for those with generalist ones. I tested this prediction in three polar seabird species characterized by different levels of predator specialization. In the Antarctic petrel, for which the only predator was highly specialized, hatching dates were highly synchronous and chicks that hatched close to the mean hatching date had a higher survival. In black-legged kittiwakes and Brünnich’s guillemots, whose predators were generalists, breeding was less synchronous and there was no fitness advantage in hatching close to the mean. This study emphasizes the potential importance of the relative timing of reproduction for individual fitness and supports the hypothesis that the adaptive value of breeding synchrony depends on the predator functional response. Data Descamps Ecol and Evol 2018Hatching date and chick survival in Antarctic petrel, Brünnich's guillemot and black-legged kittiwakes. Data are from Svarthamaren (Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica) and from West Spitsbergen (Svalbard).