IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v222y2011i17p3061-3070.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The consequences of being colonial: Allee effects in metapopulations of seabirds

Author

Listed:
  • Schippers, Peter
  • Stienen, Eric W.M.
  • Schotman, Alex G.M.
  • Snep, Robbert P.H.
  • Slim, Pieter A.

Abstract

Most seabirds live in large colonies. This fact signifies that there is an advantage in living and breeding together. Four explanations are put fore ward for this colonial behaviour, more birds have: (1) a reduced per capita predation of chicks in colonies, (2) a better anti-predator defence, (3) a more efficient foraging in temporally patchy environments and (4) sex ratios that are more likely to be close to one. These factors induce a strong Allee-type density-dependent relation, a positive relation between density and population growth rate at low density. Nevertheless, these Allee effects are generally ignored in seabird population studies. Therefore we study the consequences of introducing Allee-type density-dependent relations in a spatially explicit metapopulation model for the Common Tern (Sterna hirundo). Simulations show that Allee effects might be responsible for a 20-fold decline in the recolonization distances, causing patches and parts of metapopulations to effectively become more isolated. This leads to long recolonization times of empty breeding patches which consequently cause slower metapopulation expansion and recovery. Additionally, we show that the typical early warning signals, that show that a population is near its critical threshold induce by Allee effects, is less pronounced in colonies that are part of a metapopulation. Hence, we offer some simple equations to estimate critical densities and thresholds in a colony.

Suggested Citation

  • Schippers, Peter & Stienen, Eric W.M. & Schotman, Alex G.M. & Snep, Robbert P.H. & Slim, Pieter A., 2011. "The consequences of being colonial: Allee effects in metapopulations of seabirds," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(17), pages 3061-3070.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:222:y:2011:i:17:p:3061-3070
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2011.05.022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380011003024
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2011.05.022?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schmickl, Thomas & Karsai, Istvan, 2010. "The interplay of sex ratio, male success and density-independent mortality affects population dynamics," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 221(8), pages 1089-1097.
    2. Russell, James C. & Lecomte, Vincent & Dumont, Yves & Le Corre, Matthieu, 2009. "Intraguild predation and mesopredator release effect on long-lived prey," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(8), pages 1098-1104.
    3. Marten Scheffer & Jordi Bascompte & William A. Brock & Victor Brovkin & Stephen R. Carpenter & Vasilis Dakos & Hermann Held & Egbert H. van Nes & Max Rietkerk & George Sugihara, 2009. "Early-warning signals for critical transitions," Nature, Nature, vol. 461(7260), pages 53-59, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Arigoni, Ashley & Newman, Alexandra & Turner, Cameron & Kaptur, Casey, 2017. "Optimizing global thermal coal shipments," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 118-127.
    2. García-Quismondo, Manuel & Nisbet, Ian C.T. & Mostello, Carolyn & Reed, J. Michael, 2018. "Modeling population dynamics of roseate terns (Sterna dougallii) in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 368(C), pages 298-311.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Richter, Andries & Dakos, Vasilis, 2015. "Profit fluctuations signal eroding resilience of natural resources," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 12-21.
    2. Karimi Rahjerdi, Bahareh & Ramamoorthy, Ramesh & Nazarimehr, Fahimeh & Rajagopal, Karthikeyan & Jafari, Sajad, 2022. "Indicating the synchronization bifurcation points using the early warning signals in two case studies: Continuous and explosive synchronization," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    3. John M Drake & Tobias S Brett & Shiyang Chen & Bogdan I Epureanu & Matthew J Ferrari & Éric Marty & Paige B Miller & Eamon B O’Dea & Suzanne M O’Regan & Andrew W Park & Pejman Rohani, 2019. "The statistics of epidemic transitions," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-14, May.
    4. Gianluca Fabiani & Nikolaos Evangelou & Tianqi Cui & Juan M. Bello-Rivas & Cristina P. Martin-Linares & Constantinos Siettos & Ioannis G. Kevrekidis, 2024. "Task-oriented machine learning surrogates for tipping points of agent-based models," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    5. James J Elser & Timothy J Elser & Stephen R Carpenter & William A Brock, 2014. "Regime Shift in Fertilizer Commodities Indicates More Turbulence Ahead for Food Security," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(5), pages 1-7, May.
    6. Roland Clift & Sarah Sim & Henry King & Jonathan L. Chenoweth & Ian Christie & Julie Clavreul & Carina Mueller & Leo Posthuma & Anne-Marie Boulay & Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer & Julia Chatterton & Fabrice , 2017. "The Challenges of Applying Planetary Boundaries as a Basis for Strategic Decision-Making in Companies with Global Supply Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-23, February.
    7. Darrell Jiajie Tay & Chung-I Chou & Sai-Ping Li & Shang You Tee & Siew Ann Cheong, 2016. "Bubbles Are Departures from Equilibrium Housing Markets: Evidence from Singapore and Taiwan," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(11), pages 1-13, November.
    8. Fushing, Hsieh & Jordà, Òscar & Beisner, Brianne & McCowan, Brenda, 2014. "Computing systemic risk using multiple behavioral and keystone networks: The emergence of a crisis in primate societies and banks," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 797-806.
    9. Dur, Gaël & Won, Eun-Ji & Han, Jeonghoon & Lee, Jae-Seong & Souissi, Sami, 2021. "An individual-based model for evaluating post-exposure effects of UV-B radiation on zooplankton reproduction," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 441(C).
    10. Martin Lindegren & Vasilis Dakos & Joachim P Gröger & Anna Gårdmark & Georgs Kornilovs & Saskia A Otto & Christian Möllmann, 2012. "Early Detection of Ecosystem Regime Shifts: A Multiple Method Evaluation for Management Application," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-9, July.
    11. Simon DeDeo, 2016. "Conflict and Computation on Wikipedia: A Finite-State Machine Analysis of Editor Interactions," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-23, July.
    12. Quentin Remy & Julius Hohlfeld & Maxime Vergès & Yann Le Guen & Jon Gorchon & Grégory Malinowski & Stéphane Mangin & Michel Hehn, 2023. "Accelerating ultrafast magnetization reversal by non-local spin transfer," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    13. Hu, Jiang-Hong & Xue, Ya-Kui & Sun, Gui-Quan & Jin, Zhen & Zhang, Juan, 2016. "Global dynamics of a predator–prey system modeling by metaphysiological approach," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 283(C), pages 369-384.
    14. Jinxiao Duan & Guanwen Zeng & Nimrod Serok & Daqing Li & Efrat Blumenfeld Lieberthal & Hai-Jun Huang & Shlomo Havlin, 2023. "Spatiotemporal dynamics of traffic bottlenecks yields an early signal of heavy congestions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    15. Vasilis Dakos & Stephen R Carpenter & William A Brock & Aaron M Ellison & Vishwesha Guttal & Anthony R Ives & Sonia Kéfi & Valerie Livina & David A Seekell & Egbert H van Nes & Marten Scheffer, 2012. "Methods for Detecting Early Warnings of Critical Transitions in Time Series Illustrated Using Simulated Ecological Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-20, July.
    16. Wang, Gang-Jin & Xie, Chi, 2013. "Cross-correlations between Renminbi and four major currencies in the Renminbi currency basket," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(6), pages 1418-1428.
    17. Domenico Di Gangi & Fabrizio Lillo & Davide Pirino, 2015. "Assessing systemic risk due to fire sales spillover through maximum entropy network reconstruction," Papers 1509.00607, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2018.
    18. Nils Bertschinger & Oliver Pfante, 2020. "Early Warning Signs of Financial Market Turmoils," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-24, November.
    19. Christian Meisel & Andreas Klaus & Christian Kuehn & Dietmar Plenz, 2015. "Critical Slowing Down Governs the Transition to Neuron Spiking," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(2), pages 1-20, February.
    20. Zeng, Chunhua & Wang, Hua, 2012. "Noise and large time delay: Accelerated catastrophic regime shifts in ecosystems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 233(C), pages 52-58.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:222:y:2011:i:17:p:3061-3070. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecological-modelling .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.