Changes in body composition during breeding: Reproductive strategies of three species of seabirds under poor environmental conditions

Abstract

Seabirds differ dramatically in life history traits and breeding strategies. For example, gulls have short incubation shifts (several hours) and high metabolic rates, auks have medium-length incubation shifts (12-24h) and high metabolic rates, and petrels have long incubation shifts (days) and low metabolic rates. How these different strategies affect the dynamics of body components is poorly known. We compared body, organ and lipid mass changes among three different seabirds (gull: black-legged kittiwake Rissa tridactyla; auk: thick-billed murre Uria lomvia; petrel: northern fulmar Fulmarus glacialis) at Prince Leopold Island, Nunavut, Canada during 2002 (a year with low reproductive success and poor chick growth across all three species). This study is among the first to compare mass and lipid dynamics among different species foraging in the same food web and at similar trophic levels during the same breeding season (same environmental conditions). In fulmars and murres, most of decreases in body mass reflected decreases in lipid mass while in kittiwakes the increase in body mass reflected an increase in lean mass, especially the muscle. The species with the longest fasting endurance (incubation shift length) had the highest percent body lipids during incubation (fulmars: 13.3%, murres: 7.3%, kittiwakes: 6.9%), the highest variability in body lipids, tended to regulate body mass primarily through lipid stores and tended to regulate exercise and digestive organs separately. In contrast, in the species with the highest metabolic rate, all organ systems were adjusted similarly and in relation to body mass, and in a similar manner between incubation (stress due to heavy ice conditions) and chick-rearing (lower stress due to ice-free conditions). In high metabolic rate species, we suggest that organ size varies in response to environmental stress. We conclude that the organ dynamics of seabirds are set by a combination of key life history traits (like incubation shift and metabolic rate) and environmental conditions.