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Alligator presence influences colony site selection of long-legged wading birds through large scale facilitative nest protector relationship

Positive ecological relationships, such as facilitation, are an important force in community organization. The effects of facilitative relationships can be strong enough to cause changes in the distributions of species and in many cases have evolved as a response to predation pressure, however, very...

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Autores principales: Gabel, Wray, Frederick, Peter, Zabala, Jabi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7806806/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33441857
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80185-5
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author Gabel, Wray
Frederick, Peter
Zabala, Jabi
author_facet Gabel, Wray
Frederick, Peter
Zabala, Jabi
author_sort Gabel, Wray
collection PubMed
description Positive ecological relationships, such as facilitation, are an important force in community organization. The effects of facilitative relationships can be strong enough to cause changes in the distributions of species and in many cases have evolved as a response to predation pressure, however, very little is known about this potential trend in vertebrate facilitative relationships. Predation is an important selective pressure that may strongly influence breeding site selection by nesting birds. The American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) facilitates a safer nesting location for wading birds (Ciconiiformes and Pelecaniformes) by deterring mammalian nest predators from breeding sites. However, alligators do not occur throughout the breeding range of most wading birds, and it is unclear whether alligator presence affects colony site selection. We predicted that nesting wading birds change colony site preferences when alligators are not present to serve as nest protectors. Within the northern fringe of alligator distribution we compared colony characteristics in locations where alligator presence was either likely or unlikely while controlling for availability of habitat. Wading birds preferred islands that were farther from the mainland and farther from landmasses > 5 ha when alligator presence was unlikely compared to when alligators were likely. These findings indicate that wading birds are seeking nesting locations that are less accessible to mammalian predators when alligators are not present, and that this requirement is relaxed when alligators are present. This study illustrates how a landscape-scale difference between realized and fundamental niche can result from a facilitative relationship in vertebrates.
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spelling pubmed-78068062021-01-14 Alligator presence influences colony site selection of long-legged wading birds through large scale facilitative nest protector relationship Gabel, Wray Frederick, Peter Zabala, Jabi Sci Rep Article Positive ecological relationships, such as facilitation, are an important force in community organization. The effects of facilitative relationships can be strong enough to cause changes in the distributions of species and in many cases have evolved as a response to predation pressure, however, very little is known about this potential trend in vertebrate facilitative relationships. Predation is an important selective pressure that may strongly influence breeding site selection by nesting birds. The American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) facilitates a safer nesting location for wading birds (Ciconiiformes and Pelecaniformes) by deterring mammalian nest predators from breeding sites. However, alligators do not occur throughout the breeding range of most wading birds, and it is unclear whether alligator presence affects colony site selection. We predicted that nesting wading birds change colony site preferences when alligators are not present to serve as nest protectors. Within the northern fringe of alligator distribution we compared colony characteristics in locations where alligator presence was either likely or unlikely while controlling for availability of habitat. Wading birds preferred islands that were farther from the mainland and farther from landmasses > 5 ha when alligator presence was unlikely compared to when alligators were likely. These findings indicate that wading birds are seeking nesting locations that are less accessible to mammalian predators when alligators are not present, and that this requirement is relaxed when alligators are present. This study illustrates how a landscape-scale difference between realized and fundamental niche can result from a facilitative relationship in vertebrates. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-01-13 /pmc/articles/PMC7806806/ /pubmed/33441857 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80185-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 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 licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence 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 licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Gabel, Wray
Frederick, Peter
Zabala, Jabi
Alligator presence influences colony site selection of long-legged wading birds through large scale facilitative nest protector relationship
title Alligator presence influences colony site selection of long-legged wading birds through large scale facilitative nest protector relationship
title_full Alligator presence influences colony site selection of long-legged wading birds through large scale facilitative nest protector relationship
title_fullStr Alligator presence influences colony site selection of long-legged wading birds through large scale facilitative nest protector relationship
title_full_unstemmed Alligator presence influences colony site selection of long-legged wading birds through large scale facilitative nest protector relationship
title_short Alligator presence influences colony site selection of long-legged wading birds through large scale facilitative nest protector relationship
title_sort alligator presence influences colony site selection of long-legged wading birds through large scale facilitative nest protector relationship
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7806806/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33441857
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80185-5
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