Behavioural responses of breeding arctic sandpipers to ground-surface temperature and primary productivity.

Meyer N

Meyer N(1), Bollache L(2), Galipaud M(3), Moreau J(4), Dechaume-Moncharmont FX(5), Afonso E(6), Angerbjörn A(7), Bêty J(8), Brown G(9), Ehrich D(10), Gilg V(11), Giroux MA(12), Hansen J(13), Lanctot R(14), Lang J(15), Latty C(16), Lecomte N(17), McKinnon L(18), Kennedy L(19), Reneerkens J(20), Saalfeld S(14), Sabard B(11), Schmidt NM(13), Sittler B(21), Smith P(22), Sokolov A(23), Sokolov V(24), Sokolova N(23), van Bemmelen R(25), Varpe Ø(26), Gilg O(2).
Author information:
(1)UMR 6249 Chrono-environnement, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 16 route de Gray, 25000 Besançon, France; Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Arctique, 16 rue de Vernot, 21440 Francheville, France. Electronic address: [Email]
(2)UMR 6249 Chrono-environnement, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 16 route de Gray, 25000 Besançon, France; Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Arctique, 16 rue de Vernot, 21440 Francheville, France.
(3)Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
(4)Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Arctique, 16 rue de Vernot, 21440 Francheville, France; Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Equipe Ecologie-Evolution, UMR 6282 Biogéosciences, 6 Bd Gabriel, 21000 Dijon, France.
(5)Univ Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, ENTPE, UMR 5023 LEHNA, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France.
(6)UMR 6249 Chrono-environnement, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 16 route de Gray, 25000 Besançon, France.
(7)Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden.
(8)Département de Biologie, Chimie et Géographie and Centre d'Études Nordiques, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Rimouski, Québec, Canada.
(9)Wildlife Research & Monitoring Section, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources & Forestry, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
(10)Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, 9037 Tromsø, Norway.
(11)Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Arctique, 16 rue de Vernot, 21440 Francheville, France.
(12)K.-C.-Irving Research Chair in Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Development, Département de Chimie et de Biochimie, Université de Moncton, Moncton, NB, Canada.
(13)Arctic Research Centre and Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark.
(14)Division of Migratory Bird Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, AK, USA.
(15)Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Arctique, 16 rue de Vernot, 21440 Francheville, France; Working Group for Wildlife Research at the Clinic for Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish, Justus Liebig University Giessen, D-35392 Giessen, Germany.
(16)Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Fairbanks, AK, USA.
(17)Canada Research Chair in Polar and Boreal Ecology and Centre d'Études Nordiques, Université de Moncton, Moncton, NB, Canada.
(18)Department of Multidisciplinary Studies, York University Glendon Campus, Toronto, ON, Canada.
(19)Trent University, 1600 West Bank Dr., Peterborough, ON, Canada.
(20)Rudi Drent Chair in Global Flyway Ecology, Conservation Ecology Group, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences
(GELIFES), University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; Department of Coastal Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Utrecht University, Texel, the Netherlands.
(21)Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Arctique, 16 rue de Vernot, 21440 Francheville, France; Chair for Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
(22)Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
(23)Arctic Research Station of Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 629400, Zelenaya Gorka Str., 21 Labytnangi, Russia.
(24)Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russia.
(25)Bureau Waardenburg, Culemborg, the Netherlands.
(26)The University Centre in Svalbard, 9171 Longyearbyen, Norway; Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, 5006 Bergen, Norway; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142485

Most birds incubate their eggs, which requires time and energy at the expense of other activities. Birds generally have two incubation strategies: biparental where both mates cooperate in incubating eggs, and uniparental where a single parent incubates. In harsh and unpredictable environments, incubation is challenging due to high energetic demands and variable resource availability. We studied the relationships between the incubation behaviour of sandpipers (genus Calidris) and two environmental variables: temperature and a proxy of primary productivity (i.e. NDVI). We investigated how these relationships vary between incubation strategies and across species among strategies. We also studied how the relationship between current temperature and incubation behaviour varies with previous day's temperature. We monitored the incubation behaviour of nine sandpiper species using thermologgers at 15 arctic sites between 2016 and 2019. We also used thermologgers to record the ground surface temperature at conspecific nest sites and extracted NDVI values from a remote sensing product. We found no relationship between either environmental variables and biparental incubation behaviour. Conversely, as ground-surface temperature increased, uniparental species decreased total duration of recesses (TDR) and mean duration of recesses (MDR), but increased number of recesses (NR). Moreover, small species showed stronger relationships with ground-surface temperature than large species. When all uniparental species were combined, an increase in NDVI was correlated with higher mean duration, total duration and number of recesses, but relationships varied widely across species. Finally, some uniparental species showed a lag effect with a higher nest attentiveness after a warm day while more recesses occurred after a cold day than was predicted based on current temperatures. We demonstrate the complex interplay between shorebird incubation strategies, incubation behaviour, and environmental conditions. Understanding how species respond to changes in their environment during incubation helps predict their future reproductive success.