Eggs in the Freezer: energetic Consequences of Nest Site and Nest Design in Arctic Breeding Shorebirds
Birds construct nests for several reasons. For species that breed in the Arctic, the insulative properties of nests are very important. Incubation is costly there and due to an increasing surface to volume ratio, more so in smaller species. Small species are therefore more likely to place their nest...
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ftunivwagenin:oai:library.wur.nl:wurpubs/426278 2024-01-21T10:03:22+01:00 Eggs in the Freezer: energetic Consequences of Nest Site and Nest Design in Arctic Breeding Shorebirds Tulp, I. Schekkerman, H. de Leeuw, J.J. 2012 application/pdf https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/eggs-in-the-freezer-energetic-consequences-of-nest-site-and-nest- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038041 en eng https://edepot.wur.nl/216925 https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/eggs-in-the-freezer-energetic-consequences-of-nest-site-and-nest- doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0038041 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Wageningen University & Research PLoS ONE 7 (2012) 6 ISSN: 1932-6203 clutch expenditure heat-loss incubation insulation mating system predation sandpipers selection tundra info:eu-repo/semantics/article Article/Letter to editor info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2012 ftunivwagenin https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038041 2023-12-27T23:15:00Z Birds construct nests for several reasons. For species that breed in the Arctic, the insulative properties of nests are very important. Incubation is costly there and due to an increasing surface to volume ratio, more so in smaller species. Small species are therefore more likely to place their nests in thermally favourable microhabitats and/or to invest more in nest insulation than large species. To test this hypothesis, we examined characteristics of nests of six Arctic breeding shorebird species. All species chose thermally favourable nesting sites in a higher proportion than expected on the basis of habitat availability. Site choice did not differ between species. Depth to frozen ground, measured near the nests, decreased in the course of the season at similar non-species-specific speeds, but this depth increased with species size. Nest cup depth and nest scrape depth (nest cup without the lining) were unrelated to body mass (we applied an exponent of 0.73, to account for metabolic activity of the differently sized species). Cup depth divided by diameter2 was used as a measure of nest cup shape. Small species had narrow and deep nests, while large species had wide shallow nests. The thickness of nest lining varied between 0.1 cm and 7.6 cm, and decreased significantly with body mass. We reconstruct the combined effect of different nest properties on the egg cooling coefficient using previously published quantitative relationships. The predicted effect of nest cup depth and lining depth on heat loss to the frozen ground did not correlate with body mass, but the sheltering effect of nest cup diameter against wind and the effects of lining material on the cooling coefficient increased with body mass. Our results suggest that small arctic shorebirds invest more in the insulation of their nests than large species Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Tundra Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre): Digital Library Arctic PLoS ONE 7 6 e38041 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre): Digital Library |
op_collection_id |
ftunivwagenin |
language |
English |
topic |
clutch expenditure heat-loss incubation insulation mating system predation sandpipers selection tundra |
spellingShingle |
clutch expenditure heat-loss incubation insulation mating system predation sandpipers selection tundra Tulp, I. Schekkerman, H. de Leeuw, J.J. Eggs in the Freezer: energetic Consequences of Nest Site and Nest Design in Arctic Breeding Shorebirds |
topic_facet |
clutch expenditure heat-loss incubation insulation mating system predation sandpipers selection tundra |
description |
Birds construct nests for several reasons. For species that breed in the Arctic, the insulative properties of nests are very important. Incubation is costly there and due to an increasing surface to volume ratio, more so in smaller species. Small species are therefore more likely to place their nests in thermally favourable microhabitats and/or to invest more in nest insulation than large species. To test this hypothesis, we examined characteristics of nests of six Arctic breeding shorebird species. All species chose thermally favourable nesting sites in a higher proportion than expected on the basis of habitat availability. Site choice did not differ between species. Depth to frozen ground, measured near the nests, decreased in the course of the season at similar non-species-specific speeds, but this depth increased with species size. Nest cup depth and nest scrape depth (nest cup without the lining) were unrelated to body mass (we applied an exponent of 0.73, to account for metabolic activity of the differently sized species). Cup depth divided by diameter2 was used as a measure of nest cup shape. Small species had narrow and deep nests, while large species had wide shallow nests. The thickness of nest lining varied between 0.1 cm and 7.6 cm, and decreased significantly with body mass. We reconstruct the combined effect of different nest properties on the egg cooling coefficient using previously published quantitative relationships. The predicted effect of nest cup depth and lining depth on heat loss to the frozen ground did not correlate with body mass, but the sheltering effect of nest cup diameter against wind and the effects of lining material on the cooling coefficient increased with body mass. Our results suggest that small arctic shorebirds invest more in the insulation of their nests than large species |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Tulp, I. Schekkerman, H. de Leeuw, J.J. |
author_facet |
Tulp, I. Schekkerman, H. de Leeuw, J.J. |
author_sort |
Tulp, I. |
title |
Eggs in the Freezer: energetic Consequences of Nest Site and Nest Design in Arctic Breeding Shorebirds |
title_short |
Eggs in the Freezer: energetic Consequences of Nest Site and Nest Design in Arctic Breeding Shorebirds |
title_full |
Eggs in the Freezer: energetic Consequences of Nest Site and Nest Design in Arctic Breeding Shorebirds |
title_fullStr |
Eggs in the Freezer: energetic Consequences of Nest Site and Nest Design in Arctic Breeding Shorebirds |
title_full_unstemmed |
Eggs in the Freezer: energetic Consequences of Nest Site and Nest Design in Arctic Breeding Shorebirds |
title_sort |
eggs in the freezer: energetic consequences of nest site and nest design in arctic breeding shorebirds |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/eggs-in-the-freezer-energetic-consequences-of-nest-site-and-nest- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038041 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Tundra |
op_source |
PLoS ONE 7 (2012) 6 ISSN: 1932-6203 |
op_relation |
https://edepot.wur.nl/216925 https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/eggs-in-the-freezer-energetic-consequences-of-nest-site-and-nest- doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0038041 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Wageningen University & Research |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038041 |
container_title |
PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
e38041 |
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