10.5061/DRYAD.VMCVDNCTR
O'Connor, Ryan
0000-0002-5831-7006
Université du Québec à Rimouski
Le Pogam, Audrey
Université du Québec à Rimouski
Young, Kevin
Western University
Love, Oliver
University of Windsor
Cox, Christopher
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Roy, Gabrielle
Université du Québec à Rimouski
Robitaille, Francis
Université du Québec à Rimouski
Elliott, Kyle
McGill University
Hargreaves, Anna
McGill University
Choy, Emily
McGill University
Gilchrist, Grant
Environment Canada
Berteaux, Dominique
Université du Québec à Rimouski
Tam, Andrew
Department of National Defence
Vézina, François
Université du Québec à Rimouski
Warming in the land of the midnight sun: breeding birds may suffer greater
heat stress at high- vs low-Arctic sites
Dryad
dataset
2021
thermoregulatory polygon
Hyperthermia
snow bunting
Climate change
heat dissipation limit theory
sustained performance
FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
2022-06-29T00:00:00Z
2022-06-29T00:00:00Z
en
130952380 bytes
4
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Rising global temperatures are expected to increase reproductive costs for
wildlife as greater thermoregulatory demands interfere with reproductive
activities. However, predicting the temperatures at which reproductive
performance is negatively impacted remains a significant hurdle. Using a
thermoregulatory polygon approach, we derived a reproductive threshold
temperature for an Arctic songbird–the snow bunting (Plectrophenax
nivalis). We defined this threshold as the temperature at which
individuals must reduce activity to suboptimal levels (i.e., <
4-times basal metabolic rate) to sustain nestling provisioning and avoid
overheating. We then compared this threshold to operative temperatures
recorded at high (82°N) and low (64°N) Arctic sites to estimate how heat
constraints translate into site-specific impacts on sustained activity
level. We predict buntings would become behaviourally constrained at
operative temperatures above 11.7°C, whereupon they must reduce
provisioning rates to avoid overheating. Low Arctic sites had larger
fluctuations in solar radiation, consistently producing daily periods when
operative temperatures exceeded 11.7°C. However, high-latitude birds faced
entire, consecutive days when parents would be unable to sustain required
provisioning rates. These data indicate that Arctic warming is likely
already disrupting the breeding performance of cold-specialist birds and
suggests counterintuitive and severe negative impacts of warming at
higher-latitude breeding locations.