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How does foraging success affect chick growth? The case of the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) / MELISSA JOHNSTON

Swansea University Author: MELISSA JOHNSTON

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Abstract

Seabirds are extreme examples of income breeders whereby chick growth is entirely dependent on the foraging skills of the parents and the availability of food. It has consequently been proposed that prey availability can be assessed by examining chick growth rates. For this to be verified, studies n...

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Published: Swansea 2022
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Master of Research
Degree name: MRes
Supervisor: Rose, Kayleigh ; Wilson, Rory
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa59718
first_indexed 2022-03-28T14:32:53Z
last_indexed 2022-03-29T03:25:31Z
id cronfa59718
recordtype RisThesis
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spelling 2022-03-28T15:43:40.9080198 v2 59718 2022-03-28 How does foraging success affect chick growth? The case of the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) a9e71e9b44dcd85aa98942f3529132eb MELISSA JOHNSTON MELISSA JOHNSTON true false 2022-03-28 Seabirds are extreme examples of income breeders whereby chick growth is entirely dependent on the foraging skills of the parents and the availability of food. It has consequently been proposed that prey availability can be assessed by examining chick growth rates. For this to be verified, studies need to compare chick growth with a parental ‘Catch per Unit Effort’ (CPUE) metric as a measure of prey abundance. However, there is limited research on how CPUE affects chick growth and what it might mean in terms of parental quality and food abundance. I examined chick growth in Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) and compared it to CPUE using animal-attached accelerometer metrics assuming prey capture and time spent underwater as effort and showed that there is no significant relationship between CPUE and chick growth rates, in part due to high inter-individual variability. However, the growth rate of chicks was significantly affected by both the number of chicks within the nest (one and two chicks) and by the year (2015 and 2016), with the highest rate of growth in one-chick broods in 2016 (73.9 g/day) and the lowest in two-chick broods in 2015 (32.8 g/day). Variability of growth rates and CPUE can be caused by the size and species of prey that penguins catch during a foraging trip, whether the birds choose to allocate food accrued to themselves or their chicks, where and when the prey are found, and on prey aggregation size. Variability of food delivery on a day-to-day basis can cause misrepresented relationships between CPUE and chick growth rate. Therefore, chick growth rate and CPUE should be used with careful consideration as proxies for prey abundance in the area. E-Thesis Swansea Income breeder, CPUE, VeDBA, Prey capture, Foraging ability, Parental quality, Seabird, Food abundance, Variability 21 3 2022 2022-03-21 COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Rose, Kayleigh ; Wilson, Rory Master of Research MRes 2022-03-28T15:43:40.9080198 2022-03-28T15:30:38.6623670 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences MELISSA JOHNSTON 1 59718__23695__3948764eb08c459a99b1a34a62909ec5.pdf Johnston_Melissa_MRes_Thesis_Final_Redacted_Signature.pdf 2022-03-28T15:39:59.6868062 Output 2228759 application/pdf E-Thesis – open access true Copyright: The author, Melissa Johnston, 2022. true eng
title How does foraging success affect chick growth? The case of the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus)
spellingShingle How does foraging success affect chick growth? The case of the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus)
MELISSA JOHNSTON
title_short How does foraging success affect chick growth? The case of the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus)
title_full How does foraging success affect chick growth? The case of the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus)
title_fullStr How does foraging success affect chick growth? The case of the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus)
title_full_unstemmed How does foraging success affect chick growth? The case of the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus)
title_sort How does foraging success affect chick growth? The case of the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus)
author_id_str_mv a9e71e9b44dcd85aa98942f3529132eb
author_id_fullname_str_mv a9e71e9b44dcd85aa98942f3529132eb_***_MELISSA JOHNSTON
author MELISSA JOHNSTON
author2 MELISSA JOHNSTON
format E-Thesis
publishDate 2022
institution Swansea University
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Seabirds are extreme examples of income breeders whereby chick growth is entirely dependent on the foraging skills of the parents and the availability of food. It has consequently been proposed that prey availability can be assessed by examining chick growth rates. For this to be verified, studies need to compare chick growth with a parental ‘Catch per Unit Effort’ (CPUE) metric as a measure of prey abundance. However, there is limited research on how CPUE affects chick growth and what it might mean in terms of parental quality and food abundance. I examined chick growth in Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) and compared it to CPUE using animal-attached accelerometer metrics assuming prey capture and time spent underwater as effort and showed that there is no significant relationship between CPUE and chick growth rates, in part due to high inter-individual variability. However, the growth rate of chicks was significantly affected by both the number of chicks within the nest (one and two chicks) and by the year (2015 and 2016), with the highest rate of growth in one-chick broods in 2016 (73.9 g/day) and the lowest in two-chick broods in 2015 (32.8 g/day). Variability of growth rates and CPUE can be caused by the size and species of prey that penguins catch during a foraging trip, whether the birds choose to allocate food accrued to themselves or their chicks, where and when the prey are found, and on prey aggregation size. Variability of food delivery on a day-to-day basis can cause misrepresented relationships between CPUE and chick growth rate. Therefore, chick growth rate and CPUE should be used with careful consideration as proxies for prey abundance in the area.
published_date 2022-03-21T05:44:09Z
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score 11.104773

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