Publication Date
2021
Journal or Book Title
Ecology And Evolution
Abstract
Birds experience a sequence of critical events during their life cycle, and past events can subsequently determine future performance via carry-over effects. Events during the non-breeding season may influence breeding season phenology or productivity. Less is understood about how events during the breeding season affect individuals subsequently in their life cycle. Using stable carbon isotopes, we examined carry-over effects throughout the annual cycle of prairie warblers (Setophaga discolor), a declining Nearctic-Neotropical migratory passerine bird. In drier winters, juvenile males that hatched earlier at our study site in Massachusetts, USA, occupied wetter, better-quality winter habitat in the Caribbean, as indicated by depleted carbon isotope signatures. For juveniles that were sampled again as adults, repeatability in isotope signatures indicated similar winter habitat occupancy across years. Thus, hatching date of juvenile males appears to influence lifetime winter habitat occupancy. For adult males, reproductive success did not carry over to influence winter habitat occupancy. We did not find temporally consecutive domino effects across the annual cycle (breeding to wintering to breeding) or interseasonal, intergenerational effects. Our finding that a male's hatching date can have a lasting effect on winter habitat occupancy represents an important contribution to our understanding of seasonal interactions in migratory birds.
ISSN
2045-7758
ORCID
Akresh, Michael/0000-0002-8577-2063
Volume
11
Issue
14
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
License
UMass Amherst Open Access Policy
Funder
U.S. Forest ServiceUnited States Department of Agriculture (USDA)United States Forest Service; Smithsonian Conservation Biology InstituteSmithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian National Zoological Park & Conservation Biology Institute; Cooper Ornithological Society; American Wildlife Conservation Foundation; University of Massachusetts Amherst; Wilson Ornithological Society; American Ornithological Society
Recommended Citation
Akresh, Michael E.; King, David I.; and Marra, Peter P., "Hatching date influences winter habitat occupancy: Examining Seasonal Interactions Across the Full Annual Cycle in a Migratory Songbird" (2021). Ecology And Evolution. 451.
Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/nrc_faculty_pubs/451