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Recruiting age influences male and female survival and population persistence in a long-lived tropical seabird

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Abstract

Variation in the age at first reproduction may have important implications for growth and dynamics of populations, but these potential impacts remain virtually unexplored. By using 26 years of data from a marked colony of blue-footed boobies Sula nebouxii (Milne-Edwards), we tested whether survival of early recruits is lower in comparison to late recruits, and investigate how different recruiting ages contribute to the persistence of the population. In addition, we simulated changes in the age at recruitment and estimated their impact on population fitness. Our analyses of 1310 capture–recapture histories revealed that the younger males and females initiated reproduction within the first 6 years of life, the lower were their mean annual survival probabilities. Survival did not differ between the sexes and the impact of recruiting age on survival was similar for males and females. Each additional year that male and female boobies delayed the start of reproduction meant an increase of roughly 2 % in their annual survival rates. Male and female recruits 2–5 years old contributed the same to the rate of population growth (λ) regardless of their particular age, but the contribution to population growth started to decline from age 6 years. According to our simulations, delaying reproduction beyond 5 years in the case of females, and beyond 6 years in the case of males, would negatively affect this booby population. Therefore, we suggest that there is selection against recruiting beyond 5–6 years old. This study adds to the nascent empirical literature on long-term fitness consequences of variation in the age at first reproduction in long-lived species, and provides insights into evolution of early and late reproduction and trade-offs from a demographic perspective.

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Acknowledgments

J.L. Osorno, R. Torres and numerous volunteers provided valuable help in the field and on the database. Logistical support and permissions to work on Isla Isabel were provided by the Secretaría de Marina, Armada de México and Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas and staff of the Parque Nacional Isla Isabel). We are very grateful to numerous fishermen of Nayarit and Sinaloa for their friendship and valuable support in the field and to G. Madrid (APPIO) for his technical support during data processing. Funds were provided by Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT, 81823, 47599, 34500-V, 4722-N9407, D112-903581, PCCNCNA-031528, 31973H and 104313) and the National Geographic Society. S. Ancona was supported by a Postdoctoral Grant provided by the Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico—UNAM (Programa de Becas Posdoctorales en la UNAM 2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F., Mexico

    Sergio Ancona & J. Jaime Zúñiga-Vega

  2. Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico, D.F., Mexico

    Cristina Rodríguez & Hugh Drummond

  3. Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK

    María Cristina Carmona-Isunza

Authors
  1. Sergio Ancona
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  4. María Cristina Carmona-Isunza
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Correspondence to Sergio Ancona.

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Fig. S1

Model-averaged resighting probabilities (p) from Cormack–Jolly–Seber models fitted to capture–recapture histories of 10,850 blue-footed booby fledglings that were ringed and subsequently resighted as breeders every year during April–May on Isla Isabel, from 1988 to 2013. Different sources of variation for p, including effects of time (year), sex, age (23 age classes), and their interactions were tested. The parameterization for p with strongest support in the capture–recapture dataset was time-varying p for all individuals 3 years and older (with no differences among all these adult age classes), with constant p for fledglings and 1- and 2-year-old individuals. Hence, all subsequent models that examined variation in survival probabilities were fitted to data using this parameterization for p. (TIFF 156733 kb)

Fig. S2

11-year lifespan (i.e., the age at the last observed breeding record in the 11 seasons following the natal year) of 2315 recruits that fledged between 1988 and 2002 (13 cohorts; no fledglings were banded in 1990, and no chicks fledged in 1992 due to a severe El Niño conditions) and bred for the first time at age 2–6 years. This pattern is consistent with the model with strongest support in the mark-recapture data showing that lower apparent annual survival is predicted by younger recruitment. (TIFF 158503 kb)

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Ancona, S., Jaime Zúñiga-Vega, J., Rodríguez, C. et al. Recruiting age influences male and female survival and population persistence in a long-lived tropical seabird. Evol Ecol 29, 799–812 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-015-9781-8

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