Breeding biology of Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) in the Canadian High Arctic

The Arctic tern ( Sterna paradisaea ) is a well-known polar seabird which breeds around the circumpolar Arctic, and which undertakes the longest known annual migration of any organism. Despite its familiarity, there is little information on its breeding biology in the High Arctic, an important basel...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polar biology 2017-08, Vol.40 (8), p.1515-1525
Main Authors: Mallory, Mark L., Boadway, Kelly A., Davis, S. E., Maftei, M., Diamond, Antony W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abandonment
Aquatic birds
Biology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Body mass
Breeding
Climate
Climate change
Climate studies
Climatic changes
Climatology
Clutch size
Clutches
Ecology
Eggs
Environmental impact
Familiarity
Food
Food supply
Foods
Hatching
Interspecific relationships
Life Sciences
Microbiology
Migration
Migrations
Nesting
Oceanography
Original Paper
Plant Sciences
Polynyas
Predation
Pressure
Seabirds
Seasons
Wildlife
Zoology
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Summary:The Arctic tern ( Sterna paradisaea ) is a well-known polar seabird which breeds around the circumpolar Arctic, and which undertakes the longest known annual migration of any organism. Despite its familiarity, there is little information on its breeding biology in the High Arctic, an important baseline against which future studies of climate change impacts on northern wildlife can be compared. We studied the breeding biology of Arctic terns in the Canadian High Arctic during five field seasons, and compared this to breeding biology of terns from more southern parts of its range. Because our field site was beside a productive polynya, we expected that reproductive metrics for terns nesting there would be relatively high. However, mean clutch size (1.7 eggs), mean egg size (40.2 mm × 29.0 mm), mean nest initiation dates (6 July) were similar to Arctic terns breeding elsewhere. With our data, we could not assess the independent effects of predation pressure, poor weather or low food supplies, but two years with low tern reproduction were also years with low adult body mass and low clutch size (indicating poor food supplies), as well as low hatching success and high nest abandonment (possibly due to high predation pressure).
ISSN:0722-4060
1432-2056
DOI:10.1007/s00300-016-2072-1