Correlating tropical climate with survival of an Arctic-breeding, trans-equatorial migrant seabird
Extreme climate can negatively affect survival through increased physiological demands or by reducing prey availability. This can have significant population-level consequences for organisms with low reproductive rates, such as seabirds. As an Arctic-breeding trans-equatorial migrant, Sabine’s gull...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
NRC Research Press (a division of Canadian Science Publishing)
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1807/90788 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/AS-2017-0018 |
| Summary: | Extreme climate can negatively affect survival through increased physiological demands or by reducing prey availability. This can have significant population-level consequences for organisms with low reproductive rates, such as seabirds. As an Arctic-breeding trans-equatorial migrant, Sabine’s gull (Xema sabini) is exposed to a profound variety of climate regimes during the year. Therefore, its annual survival may be affected by broad-scale teleconnection patterns that influence regional climate variability. We used Program MARK to estimate apparent survival and resighting probabilities from 2007˗2013 for adult Sabine’s gulls breeding at a High Arctic colony. We then combined capture-mark-recapture data for the High Arctic colony with those previously published from a Low Arctic colony (1998˗2002) to examine influences of climate variability on survival. Mean ± SE apparent survival estimated for the High Arctic colony was 0.90 ± 0.03, similar to that previously reported for the Low Arctic colony. We found a negative relationship between survival and the Tropical/Northern Hemisphere pattern, an atmospheric mode that is associated with the Pacific jet stream. Our study suggests that although Sabine’s gull survival was generally high and relatively constant over time, adult mortality may increase during years of extreme climate events in regions far beyond their Arctic breeding grounds. The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author. |
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