Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T05:47:53.115Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ecological interactions and habitat modification in nesting Common Murres, Uria aalge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2010

Julia K. Parrish  and
Robert T. Paine
Julia K. Parrish
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Box 351800, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Robert T. Paine
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Box 351800, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Seabird populations suffer from a variety of natural and human-induced sources of mortality and loss of lifetime reproductive output. On the outer coast of Washington State, Common Murre Uria aalge populations have been in decline for approximately the last decade and are currently reproductively active only at Tatoosh Island. These murres nest in two basic habitat types: crevices (25% of the population) and larger cliff-top subcolonies (75%). Murres in cliff-top subcolonies have suffered dramatic reductions in reproductive success in recent years relative to conspecifics nesting in the crevices, primarily due to egg predation by Glaucous-winged Gulls Larus glaucescens and Northwestern Crows Corvus caurinus, facilitated by the presence of Bald Eagles Haliaeetus leucocephalus. Because predator removal is not feasible and creation of additional crevice habitat is difficult, expensive and potentially ineffective, we have designed a temporary habitat modification (the “silk forest”) which replaces the natural vegetation cover and modifies the interaction between murres and eagles. Within the test subcolony, murres nesting under and immediately adjacent to the silk forest produced nearly twice as many eggs per square metre as their conspecifics nesting in adjacent exposed-ground areas.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bird Conservation International , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , September 1996 , pp. 261 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © Birdlife International 1996

References

Burger, A. E. and Fry, D. M. (1993) Effects of oil pollution on seabirds in the northeast Pacific. Pp. 254–263 in Vermeer, K., Briggs, K. T., Morgan, K. H. and Siegel-Causey, D. eds. The status, ecology and conservation of marine birds of the North Pacific. Ottawa: Canadian Wildlife Service (Special Publ.).Google Scholar
Byrd, G. V., Murphy, E. C., Kaiser, G. W., Kondratyev, A. Y. and Shibaev, Y. V. (1993) Status and ecology of offshore fish-feeding alcids (murres and puffins) in the North Pacific. Pp. 176–186 in Vermeer, K., Briggs, K. T., Morgan, K. H., and Siegel-Causey, D. eds. The status, ecology and conservation of marine birds of the North Pacific. Ottawa: Canadian Wildlife Service (Special Publ.).Google Scholar
DeGange, A. R., Day, R. H., Takekawa, J. E. and Mendenhall, V. M. (1993) Losses of seabirds in gill nets in the North Pacific. Pp. 204–211 in Vermeer, K., Briggs, K. T., Morgan, K. H., and Siegel-Causey, D. eds. The status, ecology and conservation of marine birds of the North Pacific. Ottawa: Canadian Wildlife Service (Special Publ.).Google Scholar
Kress, S.W. (1983) The use of decoys, sound recordings, and gull control for re-establishing a tern colony in Maine. Col.Waterbirds 6: 185–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kress, S.W. and Nettleship, D. N. (1988) Re-establishment of Atlantic Puffins (Fratercula arctica) at a former breeding site in the Gulf of Maine. J. Field Orn. 59(2): 161–170.Google Scholar
Nettleship, D. N., Sanger, G. A. and Springer, P. F. (1984) Marine birds: their feeding ecology and commercial fisheries relationships. Ottawa: Canadian Wildlife Service (Special Publ.).Google Scholar
Paine, R. T., Wootton, J. T. and Boersma, P. D. (1990) Direct and indirect effects of Peregrine Falcon predation on seabird abundance. Auk 107: 1–9.Google Scholar
Parrish, J. K. (1995) The influence of group size and habitat type on reproductive success in Common Murres (Uria aalge). Auk 112(2): 390–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Temple, S. A. (1977a) The concept of managing endangered birds. Pp. 3–7 in Temple, S. A., ed. Endangered birds: management techniques for preserving threatened species, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Temple, S. A. (1977b) Manipulating behavioral patterns of endangered birds: A potential management technique. Pp. 435–443 in Temple, S. A., ed. Endangered birds: management techniques for preserving threatened species, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Tuck, L. M. (1961) The murres: their distribution, populations and biology. Ottawa: Canadian Wildlife Service (Monogr. 1).Google Scholar
Vermeer, K., Briggs, K. T., Morgan, K. H. and Siegel-Causey, D. (1993) The status, ecology, and conservation of marine birds of the North Pacific. Ottawa: Canadian Wildlife Service (Special Publ.).Google Scholar
Wilson, U. W. (1991) Responses of three seabird species to El Niño events and other warm water episodes on the Washington Coast, 1979–1990. Condor 93: 853–858.CrossRefGoogle Scholar