Climate mediates the success of migration strategies in a marine predator

Ecology Letters
Briana AbrahmsDaniel P Costa

Abstract

Individual behavioural specialisation has far-reaching effects on fitness and population persistence. Theory predicts that unconditional site fidelity, that is fidelity to a site independent of past outcome, provides a fitness advantage in unpredictable environments. However, the benefits of alternative site fidelity strategies driving intraspecific variation remain poorly understood and have not been evaluated in different environmental contexts. We show that contrary to expectation, strong and weak site fidelity strategies in migratory northern elephant seals performed similarly over 10 years, but the success of each strategy varied interannually and was strongly mediated by climate conditions. Strong fidelity facilitated stable energetic rewards and low risk, while weak fidelity facilitated high rewards and high risk. Weak fidelity outperformed strong fidelity in anomalous climate conditions, suggesting that the evolutionary benefits of site fidelity may be upended by increasing environmental variability. We highlight how individual behavioural specialisation may modulate the adaptive capacity of species to climate change.

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Citations

Nov 19, 2018·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Hall SawyerKevin L Monteith
Jan 27, 2019·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Sarah S KienleRita S Mehta
Feb 26, 2019·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Briana AbrahmsBruce R Mate
Dec 11, 2020·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Anne G HertelThomas Mueller
Jan 23, 2021·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Thomas A MorrisonMatthew J Kauffman
Nov 25, 2020·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Briana AbrahmsJerod A Merkle
Jul 29, 2021·Nature Communications·Ben S CarlsonWalter Jetz
Aug 5, 2021·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Gemma CarrollBarbara A Block
Oct 23, 2021·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Marcus MichelangeliAndrew Sih
Dec 4, 2021·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Elène Haave-AudetKimberley J Mathot

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