Dataset Information

Consistent choice of landscape urbanization level across the annual cycle in a migratory waterbird species.

ABSTRACT: Rapid urbanization has a great impact on avian distribution, ecology, habitat selection, and behavior. Recent avian studies indicated that individuals remain consistent in their behavioral responses to human disturbance across short periods of time. However, there is still little information about keeping consistent behaviors in distinct locations across different stages of the annual cycle. In this study, we aimed to test for long-term consistency in habitat selection with respect to urbanization in a migratory waterbird species, the Eurasian coot Fulica atra. For this purpose, we individually marked ca. 300 coots from four populations that varied in urbanization level and tracked their habitat preferences during the non-breeding season. We found that individuals from urban breeding populations selected habitats with a higher share of artificial areas during the non-breeding season, when compared to non-urban individuals. Also, a comparison of non-breeding sites selected by birds from our study populations with random sites showed that urban birds selected sites with higher urbanization level than resulting from random availability. Finally, we found a seasonal variation in habitat preferences in coots-individuals from all study populations selected more urbanized areas as the non-breeding season progressed. The results indicate that birds are able to remain consistent in habitat preferences not only at a large geographical scale, but also across different seasons. Marked between-population variation in habitat selection across the annual cycle may reflect personality differences of coots from urban and non-urban populations, and it stays in line with the personality-matching habitat choice hypothesis.

SUBMITTER: Chyb A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7804327 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Consistent choice of landscape urbanization level across the annual cycle in a migratory waterbird species.

Chyb Amelia A Jedlikowski Jan J Włodarczyk Radosław R Minias Piotr P

Scientific reports 20210112 1

Rapid urbanization has a great impact on avian distribution, ecology, habitat selection, and behavior. Recent avian studies indicated that individuals remain consistent in their behavioral responses to human disturbance across short periods of time. However, there is still little information about keeping consistent behaviors in distinct locations across different stages of the annual cycle. In this study, we aimed to test for long-term consistency in habitat selection with respect to urbanizati ...[more]

PMID: 33436983

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Project description:Long-lived migratory animals must balance the cost of current reproduction with their own condition ahead of a challenging migration and future reproduction. In these species, carry-over effects, which occur when events in one season affect the outcome of the subsequent season, may be particularly exacerbated. However, how carry-over effects influence future breeding outcomes and whether (and how) they also affect behaviour during migration and wintering is unclear. Here we investigate carry-over effects induced by a controlled, bidirectional manipulation of the duration of reproductive effort on the migratory, wintering and subsequent breeding behaviour of a long-lived migratory seabird, the Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus. By cross-fostering chicks of different age between nests, we successfully prolonged or shortened by ∼25% the chick-rearing period of 42 breeding pairs. We tracked the adults with geolocators over the subsequent year and combined migration route data with at-sea activity budgets obtained from high-resolution saltwater-immersion data. Migratory behaviour was also recorded during non-experimental years (the year before and/or two years after manipulation) for a subset of birds, allowing comparison between experimental and non-experimental years within treatment groups. All birds cared for chicks until normal fledging age, resulting in birds with a longer breeding period delaying their departure on migration; however, birds that finished breeding earlier did not start migrating earlier. Increased reproductive effort resulted in less time spent at the wintering grounds, a reduction in time spent resting daily and a delayed start of breeding with lighter eggs and chicks and lower breeding success the following breeding season. Conversely, reduced reproductive effort resulted in more time resting and less time foraging during the winter, but a similar breeding phenology and success compared with control birds the following year, suggesting that 'positive' carry-over effects may also occur but perhaps have a less long-lasting impact than those incurred from increased reproductive effort. Our results shed light on how carry-over effects can develop and modify an adult animal's behaviour year-round and reveal how a complex interaction between current and future reproductive fitness, individual condition and external constraints can influence life-history decisions.

Project description:Urban sprawl is one of the most common landscape alterations occurring worldwide, and there is a growing list of species that are recognised to have adapted to urban life. To be successful, processes of urban colonization by wildlife require a broad spectrum of phenotypic (e.g., behavioural or physiological) adjustments, but evidence for genetic adaptations is much scarcer. One hypothesis proposes that different pathogen-driven selective pressures between urban and non-urban landscapes leads to adaptations in host immune genes. Here, we examined urbanization-related differentiation at the key pathogen-recognition genes of vertebrate adaptive immunity-the major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-in a common waterbird, the Eurasian coot (Fulica atra). Samples were collected from an old urban population (established before the 1950s), a new urban population (established in the 2000s), and two rural populations from central Poland. We found strong significant divergence (as measured with Jost's D) at the MHC class II between the old urban population and the remaining (new urban and rural) populations. Also, there was a moderate, but significant divergence at the MHC between the new urban population and two rural populations, while no divergence was found between the two rural populations. The total number of MHC alleles and the number of private (population-specific) MHC alleles was lower in old urban populations, as compared to the rural ones. These patterns of differentiation at the MHC were not consistent with patterns found for neutral genetic markers (microsatellites), which showed few differences between the populations. Our results indicate that MHC allele composition depended on the level of anthropogenic disturbance and the time which passed since urban colonization, possibly due to the processes of genotype sorting and local adaptation. As such, our study contributes to the understanding of genetic mechanisms associated with urbanization processes in wildlife.

Dataset Information

Consistent choice of landscape urbanization level across the annual cycle in a migratory waterbird species.

Publications

Consistent choice of landscape urbanization level across the annual cycle in a migratory waterbird species.

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