Cargando…

Potential sex-dependent effects of weather on apparent survival of a high-elevation specialist

Mountain ecosystems are inhabited by highly specialised and endemic species which are particularly susceptible to climatic changes. However, the mechanisms by which climate change affects species population dynamics are still largely unknown, particularly for mountain birds. We investigated how weat...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Strinella, Eliseo, Scridel, Davide, Brambilla, Mattia, Schano, Christian, Korner-Nievergelt, Fränzi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7239909/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32433523
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65017-w
_version_ 1783536776288141312
author Strinella, Eliseo
Scridel, Davide
Brambilla, Mattia
Schano, Christian
Korner-Nievergelt, Fränzi
author_facet Strinella, Eliseo
Scridel, Davide
Brambilla, Mattia
Schano, Christian
Korner-Nievergelt, Fränzi
author_sort Strinella, Eliseo
collection PubMed
description Mountain ecosystems are inhabited by highly specialised and endemic species which are particularly susceptible to climatic changes. However, the mechanisms by which climate change affects species population dynamics are still largely unknown, particularly for mountain birds. We investigated how weather variables correlate with survival or movement of the white-winged snowfinch Montifringilla nivalis, a specialist of high-elevation habitat. We analysed a 15-year (2003–2017) mark-recapture data set of 671 individuals from the Apennines (Italy), using mark-recapture models. Mark-recapture data allow estimating, forgiven time intervals, the probability that individuals stay in the study area and survive, the so called apparent survival. We estimated annual apparent survival to be around 0.44–0.54 for males and around 0.51–0.64 for females. Variance among years was high (range: 0.2–0.8), particularly for females. Apparent survival was lower in winter compared to summer. Female annual apparent survival was negatively correlated with warm and dry summers, whereas in males these weather variables only weakly correlated with apparent survival. Remarkably, the average apparent survival measured in this study was lower than expected. We suggest that the low apparent survival may be due to recent changes in the environment caused by global warming. Possible, non-exclusive mechanisms that potentially also could explain sexual differential apparent survival act via differential breeding dispersal, hyperthermia, weather-dependent food availability, and weather-dependent trade-off between reproduction and self-maintenance. These results improve our current understanding of the mechanisms driving population dynamics in high-elevation specialist birds, which are particularly at risk due to climate change.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7239909
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Nature Publishing Group UK
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-72399092020-05-29 Potential sex-dependent effects of weather on apparent survival of a high-elevation specialist Strinella, Eliseo Scridel, Davide Brambilla, Mattia Schano, Christian Korner-Nievergelt, Fränzi Sci Rep Article Mountain ecosystems are inhabited by highly specialised and endemic species which are particularly susceptible to climatic changes. However, the mechanisms by which climate change affects species population dynamics are still largely unknown, particularly for mountain birds. We investigated how weather variables correlate with survival or movement of the white-winged snowfinch Montifringilla nivalis, a specialist of high-elevation habitat. We analysed a 15-year (2003–2017) mark-recapture data set of 671 individuals from the Apennines (Italy), using mark-recapture models. Mark-recapture data allow estimating, forgiven time intervals, the probability that individuals stay in the study area and survive, the so called apparent survival. We estimated annual apparent survival to be around 0.44–0.54 for males and around 0.51–0.64 for females. Variance among years was high (range: 0.2–0.8), particularly for females. Apparent survival was lower in winter compared to summer. Female annual apparent survival was negatively correlated with warm and dry summers, whereas in males these weather variables only weakly correlated with apparent survival. Remarkably, the average apparent survival measured in this study was lower than expected. We suggest that the low apparent survival may be due to recent changes in the environment caused by global warming. Possible, non-exclusive mechanisms that potentially also could explain sexual differential apparent survival act via differential breeding dispersal, hyperthermia, weather-dependent food availability, and weather-dependent trade-off between reproduction and self-maintenance. These results improve our current understanding of the mechanisms driving population dynamics in high-elevation specialist birds, which are particularly at risk due to climate change. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-05-20 /pmc/articles/PMC7239909/ /pubmed/32433523 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65017-w Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Strinella, Eliseo
Scridel, Davide
Brambilla, Mattia
Schano, Christian
Korner-Nievergelt, Fränzi
Potential sex-dependent effects of weather on apparent survival of a high-elevation specialist
title Potential sex-dependent effects of weather on apparent survival of a high-elevation specialist
title_full Potential sex-dependent effects of weather on apparent survival of a high-elevation specialist
title_fullStr Potential sex-dependent effects of weather on apparent survival of a high-elevation specialist
title_full_unstemmed Potential sex-dependent effects of weather on apparent survival of a high-elevation specialist
title_short Potential sex-dependent effects of weather on apparent survival of a high-elevation specialist
title_sort potential sex-dependent effects of weather on apparent survival of a high-elevation specialist
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7239909/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32433523
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65017-w
work_keys_str_mv AT strinellaeliseo potentialsexdependenteffectsofweatheronapparentsurvivalofahighelevationspecialist
AT scrideldavide potentialsexdependenteffectsofweatheronapparentsurvivalofahighelevationspecialist
AT brambillamattia potentialsexdependenteffectsofweatheronapparentsurvivalofahighelevationspecialist
AT schanochristian potentialsexdependenteffectsofweatheronapparentsurvivalofahighelevationspecialist
AT kornernievergeltfranzi potentialsexdependenteffectsofweatheronapparentsurvivalofahighelevationspecialist