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Multi-scale habitat selection affects offspring survival in a precocial species

  • Population ecology - Original research
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Abstract

In theory, habitat preferences should be adaptive. Accordingly, fitness is often assumed to be greater in preferred habitats; however, this assumption is rarely tested and, when it is, the results are often equivocal. Habitat preferences may not directly convey fitness advantages if animals are constrained by tradeoffs with other selective pressures like predation or food availability. We address unresolved questions about the survival consequences of habitat choices made during brood-rearing in a precocial species with exclusive maternal care (mallard Anas platyrhynchos, n = 582 radio-marked females on 27 sites over 8 years). We directly linked duckling survival with habitat selection patterns at two spatial scales using logistic regression and model selection techniques. At the landscape scale (55–80 km2), females that demonstrated stronger selection of areas with more cover type 4 wetlands and greater total cover type 3 wetland area (wetlands with large expanses of open water surrounded by either a narrow or wide peripheral band of vegetation, respectively) had lower duckling survival rates than did females that demonstrated weaker selection of these habitats. At finer scales (0.32–7.16 km2), females selected brood-rearing areas with a greater proportion of wetland habitat with no consequences for duckling survival. However, females that avoided woody perennial habitats composed of trees and shrubs fledged more ducklings. The relationship between habitat selection and survival depended on both spatial scale and habitats considered. Females did not consistently select brood-rearing habitats that conferred the greatest benefits, an unexpected finding, although one that has also been reported in other recent studies of breeding birds.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ducks Unlimited Inc., Ducks Unlimited Canada, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service through the North American Wetlands Conservation Act for major financial support. Additional financial and in-kind contributions were made by the Paterson Foundation, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the Canadian Wildlife Service. We thank site leaders L.M. Craig-Moore, J.H. Devries, F.E. DeZeeuw, R.B. Emery, J.H. Guidice, P.E. Gudehus, B.J. Joynt, G.G. Mack, G.H. Raven, D.W. Shaw, and J.M. Warren, the crew leaders and technicians involved in data collection, and the landowners who granted access to their lands. Funding for P.M. Bloom was provided by an Industrial Postgraduate Scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Foundation Wetlands and Waterfowl Research Fellowship (Ducks Unlimited Inc.), Ducks Unlimited Canada through the Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research, and Environment Canada. We are grateful to Courtney Amundson, Hannu Pöysä, and an anonymous reviewer, whose comments considerably improved this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, 112 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5E2, Canada

    P. M. Bloom & R. G. Clark

  2. Environment Canada, Prairie and Northern Wildlife Research Center, 115 Perimeter Road, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 0X4, Canada

    R. G. Clark

  3. Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Box 1160, Stonewall, MB, R0C 2Z0, Canada

    P. M. Bloom, D. W. Howerter & L. M. Armstrong

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  1. P. M. Bloom
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Correspondence to P. M. Bloom.

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Communicated by Hannu Pöysä.

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Bloom, P.M., Clark, R.G., Howerter, D.W. et al. Multi-scale habitat selection affects offspring survival in a precocial species. Oecologia 173, 1249–1259 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-013-2698-4

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