NONBREEDING HABITAT OCCUPANCY AND POPULATION PROCESSES: AN UPGRADE EXPERIMENT WITH A MIGRATORY BIRD

By Colin E. Studds, Peter P. Marra. 2005

295 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Evidence is accumulating that winter habitats occupied by migratory birds produce differences in individual condition that can carry over into subsequent stages of the annual cycle. Despite strong observational evidence, experimental work is needed to strengthen support for this hypothesis. We experimentally upgraded individual American Redstarts (Setophaga ruticilla) from low-quality second-growth scrub habitat to high-quality mangrove forest habitat by permanently removing behaviorally dominant, primarily adult males from mangrove, allowing females and immature males from scrub to colonize vacated territories. Prior to the manipulation, upgraded and control redstarts had stable-carbon isotope values in their blood indicative of scrub habitat occupancy and were comparable in body mass. Relative to control birds that overwintered exclusively in scrub, upgraded redstarts incorporated mangrove isotopic signatures, maintained body mass from winter to spring, departed earlier on spring migration, and returned at a higher rate in the following winter. Furthermore, insect biomass on upgrade territories was significantly greater than on control territories, suggesting food availability as a proximate mechanism underlying gradients of nonbreeding habitat suitability. Findings here demonstrate that winter habitat occupancy can be an important determinant of individual performance in migratory birds. Restricted access to food-rich winter habitats may limit survival of females and immature males, an outcome that could be an important driver of population structure and dynamics.

Subfields: Ecology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f2cb5ac3383ab23a22f7dfb13944e409d1d856d6

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In Ecology

Citations in the corpus

Light‐level geolocators reveal migratory connectivity in European populations of pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca (2016, unknown): “Extensive work on American redstarts Setophaga ruticilla in the New World has shown that occupancy of high quality habitats in winter advanced timing of spring departure, as mediated by food availability, that carried over to enhance fitness later in the annual cycle (Studds and Marra 2005, 2007).”
Climate, trophic interactions, density dependence and carry‐over effects on the population productivity of a migratory Arctic herbivorous bird (2010, background): “Quantifying carry-over eff ects experimentally in migrating species has proven to be a very challenging task (Studds and Marra 2005).”
High juvenile mortality during migration in a declining population of a long-distance migratory raptor (2015, background): “Email: steffen.oppel@rspb.org.uk © 2015 British Ornithologists’ Union years, however, there has been increasing awareness that events during migration or on wintering grounds can affect populations of migratory animals (Newton 2004, Studds & Marra 2005, Both et al. 2006).”
Do males matter? The role of males in population dynamics (2007, background): “These birds maintained body mass from winter to spring, departed earlier on spring migration, and returned at a higher rate in the following winter (Studds and Marra 2005).”
Telomere length, non-breeding habitat and return rate in male American redstarts (2013, background): “Mangrove-habitat males perform better than scrub-habitat males over the winter and during the following year in term of over-winter condition, survival, reproduction and timing of departure for spring migration (Studds & Marra 2005, 2007; Reudink et al. 2009a,b; Angelier et al. 2011).”
Winter climate affects subsequent breeding success of common eiders (2006, unknown): “Variation in the quality of wintering habitats may produce differences in the individual condition of migratory birds that can have carry-over effects on subsequent stages of the annual cycle (Studds & Marra, 2005).”
Phenotypic changes in spring arrival: evolution, phenotypic plasticity, effects of weather and condition (2007, background): “…wintering in good habitats are in better condition, leave the wintering sites, and arrive at the breeding grounds before birds wintering in suboptimal habitats (Marra & Holmes 2001, Bearhop et al. 2004, Norris et al. 2004, Norris 2005, Saino et al. 2004a,b, 2007, Studds & Marra 2005, 2007).”
Can conditions experienced during migration limit the population levels of birds? (2006, background): “The role of dominance was shown in an experiment in which 28 American redstarts (largely adult males) removed from their territories in optimal mangrove habitat were rapidly replaced by 23 other individuals (females and juvenile males) from poor scrub habitat (Studds and Marra 2005).”
Linking fluctuations in rainfall to nonbreeding season performance in a long-distance migratory bird, Setophaga ruticilla (2007, background): “By the end of the winter dry season in Jamaica, the availability of arthropods consumed as prey is lower in secondgrowth scrub than in mangrove forest (Studds & Marra 2005).”