Article
 

Evidence of age-related improvement in the foraging efficiency of Adelie penguins

Public Deposited

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/articles/5q47rv24j

Descriptions

Attribute NameValues
Creator
Abstract
  • Age variation in reproductive performance is well-documented but the mechanisms underlying this variation remain unclear. Foraging efficiency is likely to be a key source of demographic variation as it determines the amount of energy that can be invested in fitness-related activities. Evidence of age related changes in the foraging efficiency of adult seabirds is scarce and inconsistent. We investigated the effects of age on the foraging efficiency of breeding Adelie penguins, a relatively short-lived seabird species, in order to gain a broader perspective on the processes driving variation in ageing rates. We found support for a positive effect of age, either linear or levelling off at old ages, on both our proxies for daily catch rate and catch per unit effort. Across all age classes, males were more performant foragers than females. We found no strong evidence for differing ageing patterns between sexes or individual quality levels, and no evidence for senescence. We infer that continuous individual improvement could be responsible for a larger amount of the variation in foraging efficiency with age at our study site, compared with selective disappearance of underperforming phenotypes. The different results reported by other studies highlight the need to conduct longitudinal studies across a range of species in different environments.
Contributor
License
Resource Type
DOI
Date Issued
Journal Title
Journal Volume
  • 9
Rights Statement
Language
ISSN
  • 2045-2322

Relationships

Parents:

This work has no parents.

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details Lescroel_et_al_2019_Sci_Rep_-_Evidence_of_age-related_improvement_in_the_foraging_efficiency_of_Adelie_penguins.pdf 2019-03-14 Public Download