Coping with uncertainty: breeding adjustments to an unpredictable environment in an opportunistic raptor

No environment is truly constant in time. As a result, animals have evolved multiple adjustments to cope with such fluctuations. However, the allocation of ffort to costly activities that imply long-term commitments, such as breeding, may be extremely challenging when future resources change constan...

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Autores: Sergio, Fabrizio, Blas, Julio, López, Lidia, Tanferna, Alessandro, Díaz-Delgado, Ricardo, Donázar, José A., Hiraldo, Fernando
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/37092
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/37092
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Brood reduction
Environmental uncertainty
Hydrology
Inundation-rates
Resource Xuctuations
Water-levels
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spelling Coping with uncertainty: breeding adjustments to an unpredictable environment in an opportunistic raptorSergio, FabrizioBlas, JulioLópez, LidiaTanferna, AlessandroDíaz-Delgado, RicardoDonázar, José A.Hiraldo, FernandoBrood reductionEnvironmental uncertaintyHydrologyInundation-ratesResource XuctuationsWater-levelsNo environment is truly constant in time. As a result, animals have evolved multiple adjustments to cope with such fluctuations. However, the allocation of ffort to costly activities that imply long-term commitments, such as breeding, may be extremely challenging when future resources change constantly and unpredictably, a context that has received little investigation. To fill this gap, we studied the breeding response by a wetland-dependent raptor, the black kite Milvus migrans, to within and between-years fluctuations in resource availability (inunda- tion levels). The breeding performance of the population was decomposed into reproductive components expressed in a sequence of successive tasks along the breeding cycle (e.g. timing of laying, clutch size, hatching success, brood reduction). Variation in each component was related to resource levels observed at different key dates of the season in order to test whether and when population-level reproduction was adjusted to available resources. Along a 22-year time-series, inundation levels fluctuated unpredictably within and among years, and mostly affected the later components of kites’ reproduction, such as hatching success and the incidence of brood reduction, which were the main determinants of the population yearly breeding output. Results were consistent with multiple adjustments to cope with uncertainty. As the season progressed and resources became easier to assess, a bet-hedging waiting strategy based on a conservatively small, invariant and asynchronous clutch gave way to real-time resource-track- ing mechanisms mediated by progressive adjustments to current prey availability, so that population-level breeding rates were determined and tuned to resources rather late in the season. Such adjustments were the likely outcome of the interaction between parental tactics and environmental constraints. Behavioural flexibility, such as dietary opportunism, probably promoted further resistance to resource oscillations. Given that all ecosystems show some degree of unpredictability, resource-tracking adjustments, such as the ones depicted here, are likely to be commonplace in most communities.Peer reviewedSpringer Nature201120112011info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501http://hdl.handle.net/10261/37092reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSICinstname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)Ingléshttp://www.springerlink.com/content/8713856722715ku1/fulltext.pdfinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:digital.csic.es:10261/370922026-05-22T06:33:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Coping with uncertainty: breeding adjustments to an unpredictable environment in an opportunistic raptor
title Coping with uncertainty: breeding adjustments to an unpredictable environment in an opportunistic raptor
spellingShingle Coping with uncertainty: breeding adjustments to an unpredictable environment in an opportunistic raptor
Sergio, Fabrizio
Brood reduction
Environmental uncertainty
Hydrology
Inundation-rates
Resource Xuctuations
Water-levels
title_short Coping with uncertainty: breeding adjustments to an unpredictable environment in an opportunistic raptor
title_full Coping with uncertainty: breeding adjustments to an unpredictable environment in an opportunistic raptor
title_fullStr Coping with uncertainty: breeding adjustments to an unpredictable environment in an opportunistic raptor
title_full_unstemmed Coping with uncertainty: breeding adjustments to an unpredictable environment in an opportunistic raptor
title_sort Coping with uncertainty: breeding adjustments to an unpredictable environment in an opportunistic raptor
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Sergio, Fabrizio
Blas, Julio
López, Lidia
Tanferna, Alessandro
Díaz-Delgado, Ricardo
Donázar, José A.
Hiraldo, Fernando
author Sergio, Fabrizio
author_facet Sergio, Fabrizio
Blas, Julio
López, Lidia
Tanferna, Alessandro
Díaz-Delgado, Ricardo
Donázar, José A.
Hiraldo, Fernando
author_role author
author2 Blas, Julio
López, Lidia
Tanferna, Alessandro
Díaz-Delgado, Ricardo
Donázar, José A.
Hiraldo, Fernando
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Brood reduction
Environmental uncertainty
Hydrology
Inundation-rates
Resource Xuctuations
Water-levels
topic Brood reduction
Environmental uncertainty
Hydrology
Inundation-rates
Resource Xuctuations
Water-levels
description No environment is truly constant in time. As a result, animals have evolved multiple adjustments to cope with such fluctuations. However, the allocation of ffort to costly activities that imply long-term commitments, such as breeding, may be extremely challenging when future resources change constantly and unpredictably, a context that has received little investigation. To fill this gap, we studied the breeding response by a wetland-dependent raptor, the black kite Milvus migrans, to within and between-years fluctuations in resource availability (inunda- tion levels). The breeding performance of the population was decomposed into reproductive components expressed in a sequence of successive tasks along the breeding cycle (e.g. timing of laying, clutch size, hatching success, brood reduction). Variation in each component was related to resource levels observed at different key dates of the season in order to test whether and when population-level reproduction was adjusted to available resources. Along a 22-year time-series, inundation levels fluctuated unpredictably within and among years, and mostly affected the later components of kites’ reproduction, such as hatching success and the incidence of brood reduction, which were the main determinants of the population yearly breeding output. Results were consistent with multiple adjustments to cope with uncertainty. As the season progressed and resources became easier to assess, a bet-hedging waiting strategy based on a conservatively small, invariant and asynchronous clutch gave way to real-time resource-track- ing mechanisms mediated by progressive adjustments to current prey availability, so that population-level breeding rates were determined and tuned to resources rather late in the season. Such adjustments were the likely outcome of the interaction between parental tactics and environmental constraints. Behavioural flexibility, such as dietary opportunism, probably promoted further resistance to resource oscillations. Given that all ecosystems show some degree of unpredictability, resource-tracking adjustments, such as the ones depicted here, are likely to be commonplace in most communities.
publishDate 2011
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2011
2011
2011
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10261/37092
url http://hdl.handle.net/10261/37092
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv http://www.springerlink.com/content/8713856722715ku1/fulltext.pdf
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Springer Nature
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Springer Nature
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
instname_str Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
reponame_str DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
collection DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
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