No change in Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross (Thalassarche chlororhynchos) egg size over 160 years. (2nd April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bond, Alexander L.; McClelland, Gregory T.W.; Cuthbert, Richard J.; Glass, Trevor; Repetto, Julian; Ryan, Peter G.
• Is Part Of: Emu. Volume 120:Number 2(2020)
• Page Start: 142
• Page End: 149
• Publication Date: 2020-04-02
• Subjects: Albatross -- egg size -- life-history -- maternal investment -- Tristan da Cunha; Birds -- Australasia -- Periodicals; Ornithology -- Australasia -- Periodicals; 598.0994
• DOI: 10.1080/01584197.2020.1752733
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0158-4197

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Biotic and abiotic conditions in the world's oceans have changed considerably in the last two centuries as a result of anthropogenic factors, including whaling, sealing, fishing, and climate change. For species that have limited variation in life-history traits, life-history characteristics may impede the ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Albatrosses are one such group, where breeding investment is limited to a single egg every one or two years. At a coarse level, individuals may decide whether to breed or not, or whether to incubate an egg or not, but one of the only finer-scale adjustment in parental investment involves altering egg size, along with parental foraging and chick provisioning. We investigated changes in egg size in Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses ( Thalassarche chlororhynchos ) breeding at Tristan da Cunha, South Atlantic Ocean, from 1856 to 2015. We found no change in egg length, or breadth, which may suggest that with regards to this life-history parameter, Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses appear to have been able to buffer the effects of the trophic, climatic and oceanographic changes in the South Atlantic Ocean.