Abstract
The extent of environmental warming in the Arctic is unrivalled compared to other parts of the world. A profound ecological consequence of ongoing climate change is the temporal uncoupling of trophic interactions. Phenological asynchrony between (avian) predators and their prey can result in hampered growth and fledging success of the predators’ offspring if they do not adapt, possibly resulting in population declines. These effects can be far-reaching but long-term data, certainly in Arctic insectivorous birds, are rare and mechanisms behind and variation in organisms’ adaptability to advancing food peaks are understudied. We propose to study the reproductive timing of Arctic-breeding Sanderlings Calidris alba in relation to arthropod abundance at two Greenlandic sites which are strongly suspected to differ in phenology and peak abundance of arthropods, allowing comparisons within and between sites and years of growth, survival, movements and diet of chicks with varying degrees of phenological mismatch. We will track families, monitor arthropods and use DNA barcoding of faecal samples to discover whether spatiotemporal heterogeneity of arthropod abundance and/or diet composition enables chicks to avoid negative consequences for growth and survival of temporally mismatched reproduction. We expect families that hatch late relative to the local food peak to roam over larger distances to find remnant food patches and more often eat prey other than Diptera, thereby possibly preventing reduced growth and impaired survival. Eventually, we will study the relative impact of chick survival on local population dynamics to better understand the possible impact of observed phenological mismatches in high-Arctic Greenland.
Netherlands