| 1. |
- Elmberg, Johan, et al.
(author)
-
Breeding success of sympatric dabbling ducks in relation to population density and food resources
- 2003
-
In: Oikos. - : Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. - 0030-1299 .- 1600-0706. ; 100:2, s. 333-341
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Breeding success in sympatric mallard Anas platyrhynchos, teal A. crecca and wigeon A. penelope in a boreal watershed in Finland was studied for 12 years. Benthic and surface-emerging prey animals were trapped to obtain annual indices of food abundance. Mallard and teal were equally abundant over the years, being roughly twice as numerous as wigeon. Pair density, brood:pair ratio and duckling:pair ratio were used to test the hypothesis that per capita breeding success decreases in a density-dependent fashion as either pair density or the number of nesting pairs per available food unit increases. In mallard we found no density-dependent patterns at all. In teal per capita brood production decreased as prey animals became relatively scarcer, but this interpretation may not be robust. In wigeon, however, there were two independent significant patterns of direct density-dependence in a temporal succession, i.e. between pair density and per capita brood production in the early part of the breeding season, and thenbetween per capita abundance of surface-emerging insect prey and the number of ducklings per pair. Despite wide dietary overlap and frequent co-occurrence on single lakes among species in the guild, we found no evidence for interspecific density-dependent effects. We hypothesize that there is no or infrequent food limitation for breeding dabblers in this system, and that behavior may be the process behind the pattern of density-dependence in wigeon.
|
|
| 2. |
- Elmberg, Johan, et al.
(author)
-
Within-season sequential density dependence regulates breeding success in mallards Anas platyrhynchos
- 2005
-
In: Oikos. - : Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. - 0030-1299 .- 1600-0706. ; 108, s. 582-590
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Density dependence in vital rates is a key issue in population ecology but remains largely unexplored experimentally. We studied breeding success, lake use, and prey availability in wild mallards Anas platyrhynchos on small nemoral lakes in a replicated, two-year cross-over experiment in which pair density was increased. The number of wild mallards that settled on lakes prior to introductions of extra pairs did not differ between control and introduction years. Introductions led to a lake-level reduction in the number of broods observed. However, the number of stage 2/ (almost fledged) ducklings did not differ between treatments, nor did lake utilization by nonbreeding adults, broods and ducklings. Prey resource availability differed greatly among lakes, but it did not correlate with breeding success. Partialling out the possible effect of food competition from wild adult nonbreeding mallards did not change this conclusion. Our study demonstrates sequential density dependence in breeding success; introductions caused a decrease in brood number, but despite fewer broods a similar number of nearly fledged ducklings were produced. We suggest that predation and/or lake change of broods soon after hatching created these patterns. We conclude that using a single and late measure of breeding success such as fledged birds can mask regulatory processes. Implications of density dependence and its relation to individual reproductive success are understood better if breeding success is decomposed into nest success, duckling survival and fledgling survival.
|
|
| 3. |
|
|
