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Effects of Sitka spruce masting on phenology and demography of siskins Spinus spinus

Masting behaviour of Sitka spruce Picea sitchensis may influence Eurasian siskin Spinus spinus breeding ecology as breeding siskins specialize on spruce seeds. We caught siskins and other small passerines over 16 years using mist nets adjacent to large plantations of mature Sitka spruce. We sexed, a...

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Autores principales: Furness, Euan N., Furness, Robert W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7921583/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33649392
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-84471-8
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author Furness, Euan N.
Furness, Robert W.
author_facet Furness, Euan N.
Furness, Robert W.
author_sort Furness, Euan N.
collection PubMed
description Masting behaviour of Sitka spruce Picea sitchensis may influence Eurasian siskin Spinus spinus breeding ecology as breeding siskins specialize on spruce seeds. We caught siskins and other small passerines over 16 years using mist nets adjacent to large plantations of mature Sitka spruce. We sexed, aged, measured and weighed the birds and collected feather samples from fledglings to measure nitrogen and carbon stable isotope ratios. Siskins departed in late summer, and returned, and bred earlier in years of higher cone abundance. Nitrogen and carbon isotopes indicated that siskins fed their chicks on Sitka spruce seeds in most years, and more so in years of high cone production. More siskins were caught following heavy rainfall, when the cones had closed, encouraging the birds to seek alternative food sources. Fledglings were not heavier or larger in years with higher cone crops but were more numerous. However, the age ratio of siskins caught the following year was unaffected by cone crop. Given their reliance on Sitka spruce seeds, climate change may have a major impact on siskin numbers by altering the availability of Sitka spruce seeds, either through changes in masting patterns or cone opening, or due to climate-related changes in forestry practices. Siskins represent a valuable study system to conservation ecology, where a native species is ecologically reliant on introduced taxa.
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spelling pubmed-79215832021-03-02 Effects of Sitka spruce masting on phenology and demography of siskins Spinus spinus Furness, Euan N. Furness, Robert W. Sci Rep Article Masting behaviour of Sitka spruce Picea sitchensis may influence Eurasian siskin Spinus spinus breeding ecology as breeding siskins specialize on spruce seeds. We caught siskins and other small passerines over 16 years using mist nets adjacent to large plantations of mature Sitka spruce. We sexed, aged, measured and weighed the birds and collected feather samples from fledglings to measure nitrogen and carbon stable isotope ratios. Siskins departed in late summer, and returned, and bred earlier in years of higher cone abundance. Nitrogen and carbon isotopes indicated that siskins fed their chicks on Sitka spruce seeds in most years, and more so in years of high cone production. More siskins were caught following heavy rainfall, when the cones had closed, encouraging the birds to seek alternative food sources. Fledglings were not heavier or larger in years with higher cone crops but were more numerous. However, the age ratio of siskins caught the following year was unaffected by cone crop. Given their reliance on Sitka spruce seeds, climate change may have a major impact on siskin numbers by altering the availability of Sitka spruce seeds, either through changes in masting patterns or cone opening, or due to climate-related changes in forestry practices. Siskins represent a valuable study system to conservation ecology, where a native species is ecologically reliant on introduced taxa. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-03-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7921583/ /pubmed/33649392 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-84471-8 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
Furness, Euan N.
Furness, Robert W.
Effects of Sitka spruce masting on phenology and demography of siskins Spinus spinus
title Effects of Sitka spruce masting on phenology and demography of siskins Spinus spinus
title_full Effects of Sitka spruce masting on phenology and demography of siskins Spinus spinus
title_fullStr Effects of Sitka spruce masting on phenology and demography of siskins Spinus spinus
title_full_unstemmed Effects of Sitka spruce masting on phenology and demography of siskins Spinus spinus
title_short Effects of Sitka spruce masting on phenology and demography of siskins Spinus spinus
title_sort effects of sitka spruce masting on phenology and demography of siskins spinus spinus
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7921583/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33649392
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-84471-8
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