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Linking Vital Rates of Landbirds on a Tropical Island to Rainfall and Vegetation Greenness

Remote tropical oceanic islands are of high conservation priority, and they are exemplified by range-restricted species with small global populations. Spatial and temporal patterns in rainfall and plant productivity may be important in driving dynamics of these species. Yet, little is known about en...

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Autores principales: Saracco, James F., Radley, Paul, Pyle, Peter, Rowan, Erin, Taylor, Ron, Helton, Lauren
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4749318/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26863013
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148570
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author Saracco, James F.
Radley, Paul
Pyle, Peter
Rowan, Erin
Taylor, Ron
Helton, Lauren
author_facet Saracco, James F.
Radley, Paul
Pyle, Peter
Rowan, Erin
Taylor, Ron
Helton, Lauren
author_sort Saracco, James F.
collection PubMed
description Remote tropical oceanic islands are of high conservation priority, and they are exemplified by range-restricted species with small global populations. Spatial and temporal patterns in rainfall and plant productivity may be important in driving dynamics of these species. Yet, little is known about environmental influences on population dynamics for most islands and species. Here we leveraged avian capture-recapture, rainfall, and remote-sensed habitat data (enhanced vegetation index [EVI]) to assess relationships between rainfall, vegetation greenness, and demographic rates (productivity, adult apparent survival) of three native bird species on Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands: rufous fantail (Rhipidura rufifrons), bridled white-eye (Zosterops conspicillatus), and golden white-eye (Cleptornis marchei). Rainfall was positively related to vegetation greenness at all but the highest rainfall levels. Temporal variation in greenness affected the productivity of each bird species in unique ways. Predicted productivity of rufous fantail was highest when dry and wet season greenness values were high relative to site-specific 5-year seasonal mean values (i.e., relative greenness); while the white-eye species had highest predicted productivity when relative greenness contrasted between wet and dry seasons. Survival of rufous fantail and bridled white eye was positively related to relative dry-season greenness and negatively related to relative wet-season greenness. Bridled white-eye survival also showed evidence of a positive response to overall greenness. Our results highlight the potentially important role of rainfall regimes in affecting population dynamics of species on oceanic tropical islands. Understanding linkages between rainfall, vegetation, and animal population dynamics will be critical for developing effective conservation strategies in this and other regions where the seasonal timing, extent, and variability of rainfall is expected to change in the coming decades.
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spelling pubmed-47493182016-02-26 Linking Vital Rates of Landbirds on a Tropical Island to Rainfall and Vegetation Greenness Saracco, James F. Radley, Paul Pyle, Peter Rowan, Erin Taylor, Ron Helton, Lauren PLoS One Research Article Remote tropical oceanic islands are of high conservation priority, and they are exemplified by range-restricted species with small global populations. Spatial and temporal patterns in rainfall and plant productivity may be important in driving dynamics of these species. Yet, little is known about environmental influences on population dynamics for most islands and species. Here we leveraged avian capture-recapture, rainfall, and remote-sensed habitat data (enhanced vegetation index [EVI]) to assess relationships between rainfall, vegetation greenness, and demographic rates (productivity, adult apparent survival) of three native bird species on Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands: rufous fantail (Rhipidura rufifrons), bridled white-eye (Zosterops conspicillatus), and golden white-eye (Cleptornis marchei). Rainfall was positively related to vegetation greenness at all but the highest rainfall levels. Temporal variation in greenness affected the productivity of each bird species in unique ways. Predicted productivity of rufous fantail was highest when dry and wet season greenness values were high relative to site-specific 5-year seasonal mean values (i.e., relative greenness); while the white-eye species had highest predicted productivity when relative greenness contrasted between wet and dry seasons. Survival of rufous fantail and bridled white eye was positively related to relative dry-season greenness and negatively related to relative wet-season greenness. Bridled white-eye survival also showed evidence of a positive response to overall greenness. Our results highlight the potentially important role of rainfall regimes in affecting population dynamics of species on oceanic tropical islands. Understanding linkages between rainfall, vegetation, and animal population dynamics will be critical for developing effective conservation strategies in this and other regions where the seasonal timing, extent, and variability of rainfall is expected to change in the coming decades. Public Library of Science 2016-02-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4749318/ /pubmed/26863013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148570 Text en © 2016 Saracco et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Saracco, James F.
Radley, Paul
Pyle, Peter
Rowan, Erin
Taylor, Ron
Helton, Lauren
Linking Vital Rates of Landbirds on a Tropical Island to Rainfall and Vegetation Greenness
title Linking Vital Rates of Landbirds on a Tropical Island to Rainfall and Vegetation Greenness
title_full Linking Vital Rates of Landbirds on a Tropical Island to Rainfall and Vegetation Greenness
title_fullStr Linking Vital Rates of Landbirds on a Tropical Island to Rainfall and Vegetation Greenness
title_full_unstemmed Linking Vital Rates of Landbirds on a Tropical Island to Rainfall and Vegetation Greenness
title_short Linking Vital Rates of Landbirds on a Tropical Island to Rainfall and Vegetation Greenness
title_sort linking vital rates of landbirds on a tropical island to rainfall and vegetation greenness
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4749318/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26863013
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148570
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