The most common diet results in low reproduction in a generalist seabird.

ABSTRACT: Dietary specialization has been described across a wide range of taxa in the animal kingdom. Fitness consequences are, however, not well documented. We examined the reproductive consequences of different dietary specializations in the herring gull Larus argentatus, an omnivorous seabird, using an extensive dataset which includes breeding and dietary data of 10 successive years. We hypothesized that pairs that focused on prey of higher energetic value would yield higher fledging rates. An alternative hypothesis is that pairs that relied on more resources simultaneously would reproduce better. The novelty of this study is that we used continuous measurements representing dietary composition and degree of specialization rather than restricting our analysis to predefined categories. By

SUBMITTER: van Donk S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5496544 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature