Presentation Title
B-2 Changing sea surface temperature alters timescale of reproductive synchrony in seabird colony
Presenter Status
Department of Mathematics
Second Presenter Status
Department of Biology
Location
Buller Room 149
Start Date
31-10-2014 3:15 PM
End Date
31-10-2014 3:30 PM
Presentation Abstract
On a yearly timescale, colonial birds breed approximately synchronously in an annual pulse within a time window set by photoperiod. If a nesting colony is sufficiently dense, higher frequency reproductive oscillations on a daily timescale can form within the annual pulse due to synchronized ovulation cycles. Tight annual pulses do not afford sufficient time for ovulation cycles to synchronize. Data from a colony of Glaucous-winged Gulls support the hypothesis that the degree of yearly synchrony is inversely related to the degree of ovulation synchrony. Yearly synchrony may be advantageous due to predator satiation (Fraser Darling effect); similarly, ovulation synchrony may be advantageous due to cannibal satiation during El Nino years with high cannibalism rates. This suggests a tradeoff between strategies of synchronous reproduction on two timescales.
B-2 Changing sea surface temperature alters timescale of reproductive synchrony in seabird colony
Buller Room 149
On a yearly timescale, colonial birds breed approximately synchronously in an annual pulse within a time window set by photoperiod. If a nesting colony is sufficiently dense, higher frequency reproductive oscillations on a daily timescale can form within the annual pulse due to synchronized ovulation cycles. Tight annual pulses do not afford sufficient time for ovulation cycles to synchronize. Data from a colony of Glaucous-winged Gulls support the hypothesis that the degree of yearly synchrony is inversely related to the degree of ovulation synchrony. Yearly synchrony may be advantageous due to predator satiation (Fraser Darling effect); similarly, ovulation synchrony may be advantageous due to cannibal satiation during El Nino years with high cannibalism rates. This suggests a tradeoff between strategies of synchronous reproduction on two timescales.