Lack of synchronized breeding success in a seabird community: extreme events, niche separation, and environmental variability

• Published in: Oikos
• Main Authors: Youngflesh, Casey, Li, Yun, Lynch, Heather, Delord, Karine, Barbraud, Christophe, Ji, Rubao, Jenouvrier, Stephanie
• Other Authors: Dept of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Los Angeles, USA, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA, School of Marine Science and Policy, University of Delaware Newark, Institut for Advanced Computational Science NY, USA, Stony Brook University SUNY (SBU), State University of New York (SUNY)-State University of New York (SUNY), Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: Antarctica; environmental indicators; extreme events; global change; niche separation; synchrony; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03351629; https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.08426

International audience Synchrony in ecological systems, the degree to which elements respond similarly over time or space, can inform our understanding of how ecosystems function and how they are responding to global change. While studies of ecological synchrony are often focused on within-species dynamics, synchrony among species may provide important insights into how dynamics of one species are indicative of conditions relevant to the larger community, with both basic and applied implications. Ecological theory suggests there may be conditions under which communities might exhibit increased synchrony, however, the degree to which these patterns are borne out in natural systems is currently unknown. We used long-term breeding success data from a community of Antarctic seabirds to assess the degree of interspecific, community synchrony, and the role that extreme events play in driving these dynamics. We assessed theoretical links between community synchrony, niche separation, and environmental variability using data from this and three other seabird communities as well as a simulation study. Results show that reproductive success for individual species in the Antarctic seabird community fluctuated relatively independently from one another, resulting in little synchrony across this community, outside of extreme years. While an exceptionally poor year for a given species was not necessarily associated with an exceptionally poor year for any other species, one community-wide extreme year existed. When compared to other seabird communities, this group of Antarctic seabirds exhibited lower overall synchrony and higher estimated niche separation, supporting theoretical predictions. Empirical and simulation-derived results suggest that communities where temporal variation is small for conditions in which species respond substantially differently, and large for conditions in which species respond similarly, may exhibit more synchronous dynamics. Identifying where and why synchronous dynamics might be more apparent ...