Feeding ecology of scaup ducklings across a heterogeneous boreal wetland landscape
Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2019 Understanding how patterns of food resources influence the behavior and fitness of free-living animals is critical in predicting how changes to such resources might influence populations. The boreal region of North America is relatively undeveloped...
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ftunivalaska:oai:scholarworks.alaska.edu:11122/10617 2023-05-15T18:48:45+02:00 Feeding ecology of scaup ducklings across a heterogeneous boreal wetland landscape DuBour, Adam J. Lindberg, Mark Gurney, Kirsty Hundertmark, Kris 2019-08 http://hdl.handle.net/11122/10617 en_US eng http://hdl.handle.net/11122/10617 Wildlife Biology and Conservation Program lesser scaup food ecology Alaska Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge Thesis ms 2019 ftunivalaska 2023-02-23T21:37:31Z Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2019 Understanding how patterns of food resources influence the behavior and fitness of free-living animals is critical in predicting how changes to such resources might influence populations. The boreal region of North America is relatively undeveloped and contains abundant freshwater lakes and wetlands. These largely pristine and stable habitats harbor high densities of aquatic invertebrates, which are a critical food source for the numerous waterbird species that breed in the boreal. Invertebrates are of particular importance for the optimal growth and survival of waterbird chicks. However, observations of long-term change to boreal aquatic habitats and their invertebrate populations associated with a warming climate has been implicated in the declines of some boreal breeding waterbirds, such as the lesser scaup (Aythya affinis). Lesser scaup are known to feed extensively on amphipods, a freshwater crustacean; however, ducklings have been shown to have a diverse diet. Our goal was to use the naturally occurring heterogeneity of aquatic invertebrates across boreal lakes within the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in interior Alaska to better understand how changes in invertebrate prey resources might affect diet selection and growth in lesser scaup ducklings. First, we used a stable isotope approach to quantify the variation in the trophic niche within our population of ducklings. We found that as a population, lesser scaup ducklings consume a variety of aquatic insects, crustaceans and mollusks, and that variation in the population diet is largely attributable to variation in diet between birds from different lakes with different invertebrate communities. Second, we used the same habitat heterogeneity to examine how gradients of invertebrate abundance relate to the growth of ducklings. We observed that lesser scaup ducklings experienced reduced growth rates in lakes that had little to no amphipods. Taken together, these results suggest that while lesser ... Thesis Alaska Yukon University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA Fairbanks Yukon |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA |
op_collection_id |
ftunivalaska |
language |
English |
topic |
lesser scaup food ecology Alaska Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge |
spellingShingle |
lesser scaup food ecology Alaska Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge DuBour, Adam J. Feeding ecology of scaup ducklings across a heterogeneous boreal wetland landscape |
topic_facet |
lesser scaup food ecology Alaska Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge |
description |
Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2019 Understanding how patterns of food resources influence the behavior and fitness of free-living animals is critical in predicting how changes to such resources might influence populations. The boreal region of North America is relatively undeveloped and contains abundant freshwater lakes and wetlands. These largely pristine and stable habitats harbor high densities of aquatic invertebrates, which are a critical food source for the numerous waterbird species that breed in the boreal. Invertebrates are of particular importance for the optimal growth and survival of waterbird chicks. However, observations of long-term change to boreal aquatic habitats and their invertebrate populations associated with a warming climate has been implicated in the declines of some boreal breeding waterbirds, such as the lesser scaup (Aythya affinis). Lesser scaup are known to feed extensively on amphipods, a freshwater crustacean; however, ducklings have been shown to have a diverse diet. Our goal was to use the naturally occurring heterogeneity of aquatic invertebrates across boreal lakes within the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in interior Alaska to better understand how changes in invertebrate prey resources might affect diet selection and growth in lesser scaup ducklings. First, we used a stable isotope approach to quantify the variation in the trophic niche within our population of ducklings. We found that as a population, lesser scaup ducklings consume a variety of aquatic insects, crustaceans and mollusks, and that variation in the population diet is largely attributable to variation in diet between birds from different lakes with different invertebrate communities. Second, we used the same habitat heterogeneity to examine how gradients of invertebrate abundance relate to the growth of ducklings. We observed that lesser scaup ducklings experienced reduced growth rates in lakes that had little to no amphipods. Taken together, these results suggest that while lesser ... |
author2 |
Lindberg, Mark Gurney, Kirsty Hundertmark, Kris |
format |
Thesis |
author |
DuBour, Adam J. |
author_facet |
DuBour, Adam J. |
author_sort |
DuBour, Adam J. |
title |
Feeding ecology of scaup ducklings across a heterogeneous boreal wetland landscape |
title_short |
Feeding ecology of scaup ducklings across a heterogeneous boreal wetland landscape |
title_full |
Feeding ecology of scaup ducklings across a heterogeneous boreal wetland landscape |
title_fullStr |
Feeding ecology of scaup ducklings across a heterogeneous boreal wetland landscape |
title_full_unstemmed |
Feeding ecology of scaup ducklings across a heterogeneous boreal wetland landscape |
title_sort |
feeding ecology of scaup ducklings across a heterogeneous boreal wetland landscape |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/10617 |
geographic |
Fairbanks Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Fairbanks Yukon |
genre |
Alaska Yukon |
genre_facet |
Alaska Yukon |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/10617 Wildlife Biology and Conservation Program |
_version_ |
1766242010373554176 |